Streetcar, Interurban, and Railroad Information
Line Data From Ordinance 322-1925
Lines with no data are not part of the 1925 ordinance
Street names have been changed to reflect current names as far as I can determine
1 Chapel St.
2 Evanston, 4th & Vine-Montgomery & Dana.
Vine-5th-Broadway-Gilbert-McMillan-Woodburn-Montgomery-Dana wye
Return, Montgomery-Woodburn-McMillan-Gilbert-Broadway-4th-Vine.
3 Gilbert
4 Kennedy Heights, 6th & Main-Montgomery & Kennedy.
Main-9th-Sycamore-Reading-Florence-Gilbert-McMillan-Park-Chapel-Woodburn-Montgomery-Kennedy wye (1)
Return, Montgomery-Woodburn-Chapel-Alms-Yale-Gilbert-Florence-Reading-Broadway-6th-Main.
5 Norwood, 6th & Main-Pine & Harris.
Main-9th-Sycamore-Reading-Florence-Gilbert-Montgomery-Harris-Forrest-Norwood-Pine
Return, Harris-Montgomery-Gilbert-Florence-Reading-Broadway-6th-Main.
7 North Norwood, 6th & Walnut-Montgomery & Fenwick.
6th-Vine-McMillan-Gilbert-Montgomery-Fenwick wye
Return, Montgomery-Gilbert-McMillan-Vine-9th-Walnut-6th.
8 South Norwood, 6th & Main-Private ROW & Forrest.
Main-9th-Sycamore-Reading-Florence-Gilbert-McMillan-Park-Chapel-Woodburn-Montgomery-Cleneay-Floral-Forrest-Kenilworth-Beech-Private ROW
Return, Forrest-Floral-Cleneay-Montgomery-Woodburn-Chapel-Alms-Yale-Gilbert-Florence-Reading-Sycamore-6th-Main.
9 Vine-Norwood, 6th & Walnut-Spring Grove & Chester Park.
6th-Vine-McMillan-Gilbert-Montgomery-Sherman-McNeil wye
Return, Sherman-Montgomery-Gilbert-McMillan-Vine-9th-Walnut-6th.
15 Clark St., 5th & Walnut-Spring Grove & Chester Park.
5th-Vine-12th-Central Ave.-Clark-Freeman-Liberty-Western-Spring Grove-Chester Park Loop
Return, Spring Grove-Western-Liberty-Freeman-Clark-Central Ave.-12th-Walnut-5th.
16 Colerain Ave., 6th & Vine-Virginia & Colerain.
6th-Elm-12th-Central Ave.-Clark-Baymiller-Liberty-Freeman-Central Ave.-Colerain-Spring Grove-Hamilton-Chase-Virginia
Return, Colerain-Central Ave.-Freeman-York-Linn-Clark-Central Ave.-12th-Elm-7th-Vine-6th.
17 College Hill, 6th & Vine-North Bend & Oak.
6th-Elm-McMicken-Mohawk-Central Ave.-Colerain-Spring Grove-Hamilton-North Bend
Return, Oak-Belmont-Hamilton-Spring Grove-Colerain-Central Ave.-Mohawk-McMicken-Elm-7th-Vine-6th.
18 North Fairmount, 6th & Vine-Baltimore & Casper.
6th-Elm-7th-John-8th-Freeman-Liberty-Western-Spring Grove-Harrison-State-Harrison-Beekman-Baltimore-Casper Loop
Return, Baltimore-Beekman-Harrison-State-Harrison-Spring Grove-Western-Liberty-Freeman-Clark-Linn-9th-Vine-6th.
19 John St., 4th & Vine-Hopple & Beekman.
4th-John-Findlay-Baymiller-Bank-Colerain-Harrison-State-Harrison-Westwood-Quebec-Quebec Loop
Return, Quebec-Westwood-Harrison-State-Harrison-Central Ave.-5th-Vine-4th.
20 6th St., 4th & Vine-Hopple & Beekman.
4th-John-6th-Baymiller-Liberty-Western-Spring Grove-Meeker-Hopple-Beekman wye
Return, Hopple-Meeker-Spring Grove-Western-Liberty-Baymiller-5th-Vine-4th.
21 Westwood, 6th & Vine-Glenmore & Montana.
6th-Elm-McMicken-Mohawk-Central Ave. Harrison-State-Harrison-Glenmore
Return, Montana-Harrison-State-Harrison-Central Ave.-Mohawk-McMicken-Elm-7th-Vine-6th.
27 East End, 5th & Baymiller-Eastern & Archer.
5th-Broadway-Pearl-Front-Eastern-Archer wye (2)
Return, Eastern-3rd-Martin-Pearl-Broadway-4th-Baymiller-5th
28 Union Depot-Carrel, 3rd & John-Eastern & Carrel.
John-5th-Broadway-Pearl-Front-Eastern-Carrel Loop
Return, Eastern-3rd-Martin-Pearl-Broadway-4th-Central Ave.-3rd-John.
30 Fernbank (3)
31 Cross Town, 8th & State-Park & Yale.
State-Dutton wye-State-Harrison-Brighton-McMicken-McMillan-Park
Return, Yale-Gilbert-McMillan-McMicken-Brighton-Harrison-State-8th.
32 Elberon Ave., 4th & Vine-8th & Nebraska.
4th-Elm-7th-John-8th-State-Elberon-W. 8th-Nebraska Loop
Return, W. 8th-Elberon-State-8th-Central Ave.-5th-Vine-4th.
33 Elberon Short, 4th & Vine-Elberon & 8th.
4th-Elm-7th-John-8th-State-Elberon-W. 8th wye
Return, Elberon-State-8th-Central Ave.-5th-Vine-4th.
34 Sedamsville, 4th & Vine-CL&A Depot.
4th-John-8th-State-6th-River-Liston-Private ROW-CL&A Depot wye
Return, Liston-River-6th-Neave-Staebler-State-8th-Central Ave.-5th-Vine-4th.
35 Warsaw Ave., 4th & Vine-Glenway & Ferguson.
4th-Elm-7th-John-8th-Glenway-Wilder-Warsaw-Glenway-Ferguson Loop
Return, Glenway-Warsaw-Wilder-Glenway-8th-Central Ave.-5th-Vine-4th.
36 Warsaw Ave. Short, 4th & Vine-Glenway & McKeone.
4th-Elm-7th-John-8th-Glenway-Wilder-Warsaw-Glenway-McKeone (Carson) Loop
Return, Glenway-Warsaw-Wilder-Glenway-8th-Central Ave.-5th-Vine-4th.
40 Avondale, 4th & Main-Mitchell & Clinton Springs.
Main-9th-Sycamore-Reading-Mitchell-Clinton Springs wye
Return, Mitchell-Reading-Sycamore-4th-Main.
41 Avondale-Chester Park
42 Bond Hill, 4th & Main-Paddock @ B&O RR.
Main-9th-Sycamore-Reading-Paddock-Paddock Loop @ B&O RR
Return, Paddock, Reading, Sycamore, 4th, Main.
44 Highland Ave., 6th & Main-McMillan & Auburn.
Main-Woodward-Broadway-Liberty-Highland-McMillan
Return, Auburn-Dorchester-Josephine-Ringgold-Highland-Liberty-Sycamore-6th-Main.
45 5th St., 5th & Baymiller-6th & Front.
5th-Freeman-6th-Front Loop
Return, 6th-Freeman-5th-Baymiller wye
46 Vine-Burnet, 6th & Walnut-Rockdale & Reading.
6th-Vine-McMillan-Highland-Melish-Burnet-Rockdale-Reading wye (4)
Return, Rockdale-Burnet-Melish-Highland-McMillan-Vine-12th-Walnut-6th.
47 Winton Place, 4th & Main-Edgewood & Epworth.
Main-9th-Sycamore-Reading-Mitchell-Spring Grove-Winton-McMakin-Edgewood
Return, Epworth-Winton-Spring Grove-Mitchell-Reading-Sycamore-4th-Main.
49 Zoo-Eden Park, 4th & Vine-Vine @ Zoo.
Vine-5th-Eggleston-Priavte ROW-Mt. Adams Incline-Rookwood-Celestial-Monastery-Ida-Private ROW through Eden Park-Sinton-Gilbert-McMillan-May-Oak-Reading-Melish-Burnet-Erkenbrecher-Vine-Private ROW Loop (5)
Return, Vine-Erkenbrecher-Burnet-Melish-Reading-Oak-May-McMillan-Gilbert-Sinton-Private ROW through Eden Park-Ida-Monastery-Celestial-Rookwood-Mt. Adams Incline-Private ROW-Eggleston-5th-Broadway-4th-Vine.
53 Auburn Ave., 6th & Main-McMillan & Highland.
Main-Woodward-Broadway-Liberty-Highland-Ringgold-Josephine-Dorchester-Auburn-McMillan
Return, Highland-Liberty-Sycamore-6th-Main.
54 Hartwell Junction, 6th & Walnut-Anthony Wayne & Woodbine.
6th-Vine-Anthony Wayne-Woodbine wye
Return, Anthony Wayne-Vine-9th-Walnut-6th.
55 Vine-Clifton, 5th & Walnut-McAlpin @ Clifton Public School.
5th-Vine-Private ROW-Jefferson-Ludlow-Telford-Bryant-Middleton-McAlpin-Private ROW Loop (6)
Return, McAlpin-Middleton-Ludlow-Jefferson-Private ROW-Vine-9th-Walnut-5th.
56 Vine-Zoo-Chester Park
60 Fairview, 6th & Vine-Fairview @ End of Road.
6th-Elm-Bellevue Incline-Private ROW-Ohio-McMillan-Fairview-Fairview/Private ROW Loop (7)
Return, Fairview-McMillan-Ohio-Private ROW-Bellevue Incline-Elm-7th-Vine-6th.
61 Clifton-Ludlow, 6th & Walnut-Hamilton & Springlawn.
6th-Vine-Clifton-McMillan-Clifton-Ludlow-Hamilton-Springlawn wye
Return, Hamilton-Ludlow-Clifton-McMillan-Clifton-Vine-McMicken-Main-9th-Walnut-6th.
62 Ohio Ave.
64 McMicken-Main, 6th & Main-McMicken & Dixmyth (Martin Luther King Jr.).
Main-McMicken-Dixmyth (Martin Luther King) Loop (8)
Return-McMicken-Main-9th-Sycamore-6th-Main.
65 Clifton-Ludlow Short, 6th & Walnut-Bryant & Middleton.
6th-Vine-Clifton-McMillan-Clifton-Ludlow-Telford-Bryant
Return, Middleton-Ludlow-Clifton-McMillan-Clifton-Vine-McMicken-Main-9th-Walnut-6th.
67 Edwards Rd., Edwards & Erie-Edwards & Markbreit.
Edwards-Markbreit
Return, Edwards-Erie.
68 Madison Rd., 4th & Main-Delta & Eastern.
Main-5th-Broadway-Gilbert-McMillan-Woodburn-Madison-Erie-Delta-Eastern wye
Return, Delta-Erie-Madison-Woodburn-McMillan-Gilbert-Broadway-4th-Main.
69 Madisonville, 4th & Main-Madison & Kenwood.
Main-5th-Broadway-Gilbert-McMillan-Woodburn-Madison-Erie-Bramble-Whetsel-Madison-Kenwood-Private ROW Loop
Return-Kenwood-Madison-Whetsel-Bramble-Erie-Madison-Woodburn-McMillan-Gilbert-Broadway-4th-Main.
70 Oakley, 4th & Main-Madison @ B&O RY.
Main-5th-Broadway-Gilbert-McMillan-Woodburn-Madison-Madison Loop @ B&O RY
Return, Madison-Woodburn-McMillan-Gilbert-Broadway-4th-Main.
71 Milford (9), 5th & Main-Milford.
5th-Broadway-Gilbert-McMillan-Woodburn-Madison-Erie-Private ROW to Milford (See map)
Return, Private ROW-Erie-Madison-Woodburn-McMillan-Gilbert-Broadway-4th-Main.
72 Mariemont (9), 5th & Main-Mariemont (Erie & Murray).
5th-Broadway-Gilbert-McMillan-Woodburn-Madison-Erie-Private ROW to Mariemont-Loop @ Murray and Miami
Return, Private ROW-Erie-Madison-Woodburn-McMillan-Gilbert-Broadway-4th-Main.
74 Hartwell Junction
75 Wyoming (10), 6th & Main-Springfield Pike & Bonham.
Main-McMicken-Vine-Anthony Wayne-Woodbine-Private ROW-DeCamp-Springfield Pike-Bonham Loop
Return, Springfield Pike-DeCamp-Private ROW-Woodbine-Anthony Wayne-Vine-McMicken-Main-9th-Sycamore-6th-Main.
76 Glendale (10), 6th & Main-Sharon & Springfield Pike.
Main-McMicken-Vine-Anthony Wayne-Woodbine-Private ROW-DeCamp-Springfield Pike-Princeton Pike-Sharon-Sharon Loop
Return, Sharon-Princeton Pike-Springfield Pike-DeCamp-Private ROW-Woodbine-Anthony Wayne-Vine-McMicken-Main-9th-Sycamore-6th-Main.
77 Springdale (10), 6th & Main-Springdale.
Main-McMicken-Vine-Anthony Wayne-Woodbine-Private ROW-DeCamp-Springfield Pike-Princeton Pike-Sharon-Springfield Pike-Springdale Loop
Return, Springfield Pike-Sharon-Princeton Pike-Springfield Pike-DeCamp-Private ROW-Woodbine-Anthony Wayne-Vine-McMicken-Main-9th-Sycamore-6th-Main.
78 Lockland, 6th & Main-Williams & Wyoming.
Main-McMicken-Vine-Anthony Wayne-Wyoming-Mill-Dunn-Williams
Return, Wyoming-Anthony Wayne-Vine-McMicken-Main-9th-Sycamore-6th-Main.
(1) Interurban Railway & Terminal interurban line taken over by CSR from Fenwick to Coleridge
(2) Loop replaced Archer wye after conversion to buses and construction of Columbia Pkwy.
(3) Cincinnati, Lawrenceburg & Aurora interurban line taken over by CSR from Anderson Ferry to Lowland
(4) Loop replaced Reading wye when converted to trolleybusses
(5) Loop replaced loop in the middle of Vine/Erkenbrecher intersection
(6) Loop replaced Middleton/McAlpin wye
(7) Loop replaced Fairview Incline
(8) Loop replaced Riddle wye in 1925/26
(9) Cincinnati, Milford & Blanchester interurban line taken over by CSR from Erie to Milford
(10) Cincinnati & Hamilton interurban line taken over by CSR from Anthony Wayne to Springdale
Anderson Ferry - Aurora, IN, branch to Harrison
1900-1930
Standard Gauge
Constructed by the Cincinnati Lawrenceburg & Aurora Electric Street Railroad, 1900
Purchased by CSR, service cut back to Fernbank, line from Anderson Ferry to Fernbank converted to broad gauge, 1930
Streetcar service suspended, 1940
This interurban was a standard-gauge line along the Ohio River from Anderson's Ferry, at the west end of Cincinnati, to Aurora, Indiana (25 miles), with a branch from Valley Junction to Harrison, Ohio (8 miles). It was completed in 1900. Plans for extension west to Rising Sun, Madison, and Louisville were never implemented. In 1913 flood damage forced the road into receivership, from which it did not emerge for 15 years, one of the longest receivership periods in the industry's history. The line is principally noteworthy for its pioneer purchase of lightweight, one-man equipment in 1918. The company was severely handicapped by its remote terminal, but like the rest of Cincinnati's standard-gauge interurbans, it never achieved entry into the center of the city. After reorganizing as the Cincinnati Lawrenceburg and Aurora Electric Railway Company in 1928, the line survived for only two years, and was abandoned in 1930 after a year of operating losses. Six miles from Anderson's Ferry to Fernbank were converted to 5'-2 1/2" gauge and operated by the Cincinnati Street Railway until 1941. The lightweight cars were sold to the Sand Springs Railway at Tulsa, Oklahoma. (From: Hilton, George W. and John F. Due, The Electric Interurban Railways in America. Stanford University Press, 1960)
There isn't too much information out there about this interurban, as it wasn't anything particularly remarkable. Its close proximity to the Big 4 and B&O railroad made for an interesting tangle of railroad tracks through the west side of Cincinnati along the river. The takeover of this line by the CSR was a bit odd, considering that they needed to widen the distance between the rails. They left one rail and simply moved the other one over, but it's still a lot of work, especially since streetcar systems throughout the country were already being abandoned by 1930. The many factories along this route probably provided much of the ridership to and from other parts of the city, since the terrain does not allow much residential development this way until Delhi. Aside from the road's early use of lightweight equipment, it is also notable for its pioneering of container shipping. These containers could be brought by truck to the terminal at Anderson Ferry and loaded on rail cars for shipment to Indiana. A few other local railroads dabbled in this type of shipment, but with trucks taking over all less than carload (LCL) freight, this method of shipment was largely forgotten untie the recent resurgence of boat/rail/truck shipping and the distinctive metal cargo containers we have today.
The CL&A's terminal was at Anderson Ferry on River Road, which was Liston Road at the time. The line never operated east of Anderson Ferry, since its standard gauge did not allow them to operate over streetcar tracks. The CSR's route originally ended here, and there was a large loop with an extra layover track next to the CL&A depot. The route was double-track in the city, and it basically followed River Road west from here to Delhi, where it merged with Graceley Road. Just past Lowland Road at the northwest extreme of Fernbank, the double-track route merged to a single track. This is where the line ended after the CSR took it over. They put in a turnaround loop at this location after the takeover. The interurban line then ran on its own ROW for a short distance before running on Main Street in Addyson. There's some telephone poles at the extreme northwest end of Fernbank, but the graded ROW behind some houses on Hillside Ave. is the most visible remain of the CL&A. There's also some bridge remains about where E. Main turns into Hillside. This is where you'd get off of River Road to get on E. Main or Hillside. The CL&A continued to follow Route 50 after Addyston. When it reached North Bend, it curved away from River Road and had a short ROW into Cleves, where it ran on Miami Road before curving sharply to the west along Cooper. It then came back onto River (Route 50) and crossed the Great Miami River, sharing an old bridge with Route 50. The route to Aurora followed Route 50 into Indiana and Lawrenceburg. The branch line to Harrison basically paralleled the old NYC now I&O line along Kilby Road through Whitewater Township. As I have not been able to find any USGS maps of southeast Indiana, I have no way of plotting the route past the state line. There has been work on some new bike trails in the Lawrenceburg area, and there are some intriguing old trestles and grading along the Ohio River. However, with several mainline railroads in the area, it is difficult to discern what was railroad and what was interurban.
Cincinnati & Westwood
South Fairmount - Westwood
1874-1941
Narrow Gauge
Converted to Standard Gauge, 1891
Constructed by the Cincinnati & Westwood Railroad, 1874
All service suspended 1924, abandoned and dismantled 1941
The Cincinnati & Westwood was a short, narrow gauge suburban railroad that provided transportation to the incorporated village of Westwood before it was annexed to the City of Cincinnati. Of the narrow gauge railroads in the area, this is the only one that was never upgraded to an interurban, like the College Hill Railroad was absorbed into the C&LE, or the Cincinnati, Georgetown and Portsmouth that electrified its existing line and added some new branches. Nor did it ever have any ambitions for becoming part of a larger narrow gauge or standard gauge system, like the CL&N or the C&E (later N&W line to Portsmouth). It basically lived out its life as a short line suburban railroad on the same route it had from its inception. Like the College Hill Railroad and the Mt. Lookout dummy line, it was constructed primarily as a means to get people to buy suburban houses in the neighborhood it served, not as a heavy freight hauler. The railroad was never expected to make much money, if any, but to improve the value of the land speculators wanted to sell. The C&W's original proprietor was William Davis, and Michael Werk and James N. Gamble were also stock subscribers. Davis died in 1877, less than a year after operations started. Michael Werk took over and basically underwrote the road's mounting losses with his own money. He ran the railroad until 1886, by which time it had fallen into horrible disrepair and was closed by the Ohio Railroad Commission due to safety concerns.
After nearly a year out of service, James N. Gamble took over and upgraded the line to standard gauge while rebuilding much of the roadbed and trestles. Despite these improvements, passenger service was suspended shortly after the Westwood streetcar line opened in 1895. The cost of tickets could not compete with the 5 cent city fare on the streetcar, and running time was probably not much better with complicated switching arrangements with the connecting CH&D. The CH&D terminal at 5th and Baymiller was also not particularly convenient for commuters who might need to transfer to streetcars or a taxi to get to their final destination anyway. Upon losing the passenger traffic that was the line's main reason for existence, Gamble had to contribute a lot of his money to fund the railroad's deficits, just as Werk had done earlier. The C&W limped along by hauling freight to the coal yards and supply depots along the way. Normal operations ceased in 1924, but the C&W managed to hang on until 1941 with one employee running a gasoline powered motor car along the line daily to maintain the bridges and tracks. After that though, the tracks were pulled up for scrap, and any of the trestles that weren't dismantled for safety reasons (all of them were made of wood) were left to rot. So even though the C&W didn't last long, it still outlived all the area's interurban railroads, and there's more remnants than one might expect.
Surprisingly, even though this line has been gone for nearly 60 years, there's still some tracks shown in GIS data from the 1990's. I've managed to trace the route pretty accurately, but suburban development has erased much of what may have remained at the end of the line. This railroad had its own ROW for its entire length. It started in South Fairmount and joined with the CH&D east of Beekman Street and the Lunkenheimer Valve plant. A short spur off the CH&D still remains under the pavement to the abandoned factory. Right now, only the tracks crossing Beekman remain, and they will likely be covered as soon as the road is paved again. Running west from here, the line ran between Queen City and Harrison Avenues and roughly paralleled Queen City Avenue. There's some bridge abutments left at White Street, which the Cincinnati & Westwood had a wooden trestle over. At East Tower Drive/Gehrum Lane, the line turned northwest towards Harrison Avenue. Before hitting Montana Avenue, it turned west and ran to roughly the western border of the city where it ended. There is a noticeable raised berm throughout much of Westwood, which makes the ROW easy to trace. It is difficult to locate the end of the line, however, due to more recent development, at-grade track, and the proximity of the Cincinnati and Cheviot borders, which means some streets stop at the border, making it look like a potential rail route where it isn't.
Winton Place - Detroit, MI
1873-1939
Narrow Gauge
Converted to Standard Gauge, 1902
Electrified, 1901
Parent Railroads:
Cincinnati & Miami Valley Traction Co., Hamilton-Dayton, 1897
Cincinnati & Hamilton Electric Street Railway, College Hill-Hamilton, 1898
College Hill Railroad & its Successor the Cincinnati-Northwestern Railroad (Steam), College Hill/Mt. Healthy, 1873
Cincinnati-Northwestern Acquired & Electrified by the Southern Ohio Traction Co., 1901
Hamilton-Dayton Lines Purchased by the Southern Ohio Traction Co., Reorganized as the Cincinnati, Dayton & Toledo Traction Co., 1902
Reorganized as the Ohio Electric Railway, 1907
Reorganized as the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railway, 1926
Reorganized as the Cincinnati & Lake Erie, Cincinnati-Detroit, 1930
Abandoned, 1939
The Ohio Electric Railway, the largest interurban in Ohio, was organized by Randal Morgan, W. Kesley Schoepf, Hugh J. McGowan, and their associates on May 16, 1907. The company had originated two years earlier, when the same men formed the Ohio Syndicate, and organized the Cincinnati Northern Traction Company to lease the Cincinnati Dayton and Toledo Traction Company, proprietor of the important road between Cincinnati and Dayton. The line had been built by two companies, both affiliated with the Pomeroy-Mandelbaum syndicate, the Cincinnati and Miami Valley Traction Company (Hamilton-Dayton, 36 miles, opened 1897), and the Cincinnati and Hamilton Electric Street Railway (College Hill-Hamilton, 14 miles, opened 1898). The Pomeroy-Mandelbaum interests consolidated the two companies into the Southern Ohio Traction Company in 1900. The new company was in turn consolidated with the Miamisburg and Germantown Traction Company (5 miles, completed 1901), and two street railway properties into the Cincinnati Dayton and Toledo Traction Company in 1902. The Pomeroy-Mandelbaum interests were financially distressed by the panic of 1903, and so lost control of the property to the Schoepf-McGowan syndicate.
The Ohio Electric assumed the lease of the CD&T, and leased the Indiana Columbus and Eastern Traction Company that the Schoepf-McGowan syndicate had organized out of the former Appleyard properties in 1906. It also leased the Lima and Toledo Traction Company (73 miles when completed), which, although unfinished, had itself leased the Fort Wayne Van Wert and Lima Traction Company in 1906. When the gap between Lima and Bellefontaine was closed and the line from Lima to Toledo was completed (both in 1908), and when the Defiance branch was electrified in 1909, the Ohio Electric consisted of about 617 miles of line. It operated city service in Lima, Dayton, Hamilton, Newark, and Zanesville.
Size did not mean strength, however, for the Ohio Electric never paid a dividend, and was never free of financial problems. It suffered from the two-cent-fare laws after 1906, and suffered about $1.5 million damage in the 1913 flood. Increasing costs, especially for paving and for street maintenance, relatively rigid fare structures, and rising highway competition all contributed to the company's disintegration. In 1918 it surrendered the Dayton-Cincinnati line to new owners, the Cincinnati and Dayton Traction Company, and in 1920 it turned the Dayton and Western back to its owners. In January 1921, the company went bankrupt, and was dissolved. The IC&E, the Columbus Newark and Zanesville, the Lima and Toledo, and the Fort Wayne Van Wert and Lima all went bankrupt at the same time, but resumed independent operation.
The CN&Z and the FWVW&L were reorganized independently in 1925 and 1926, respectively, and never again operated jointly with the IC&E and the L&T. The L&T was reorganized in 1924 as the Lima-Toledo Railroad. In 1929, both the Lima-Toledo and the IC&E were reunited with the Cincinnati-Dayton line as the Cincinnati and Lake Erie Railroad.
As the first event in the disintegration of the Ohio Electric Railway the line between Dayton and Cincinnati was transferred to an independent company, the Cincinnati and Dayton Traction Company, organized on April 26, 1918. This company itself failed and was reorganized into the Cincinnati Hamilton and Dayton Railway Company in 1926. The new company, which had no connection with the railroad of the same name, was headed by a former professor of finance, Dr. Thomas Conway, Jr., who had already been successful in reviving the Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad. He ordered new equipment that the property badly needed, and increased the maintenance of its roadbed. he did well at building up freight service in interurban equipment, and by virtue of his wide contacts in the railroad industry was more than ordinarily successful in establishing through rates for LCL with the railroads. Conway believed that there was still a place for the interurban in the medium distance range of passenger traffic, and thus conceived of regrouping the main lines of the former Ohio Electric.
In 1929 Conway brought together (effective January 1, 1930) under the ownership of his company, the Indiana Columbus and Eastern and the Lima-Toledo Railroad. The CH&D changed its name simultaneously to the Cincinnati and Lake Erie Railroad. The new company consisted of the old Ohio Electric main line from College Hill (Cincinnati) to Toledo (216 miles) and a single branch from Springfield to Columbus (44.5 miles). Since both were relatively strong lines, by the standards of the industry, they were considered good prospects for survival. Between 1931 and 1936, the C&LE operated the Dayton and Western, also a relatively important line. Conway ordered 20 new cars capable of high speeds and offering considerable comfort, and inaugurated limited service between Cincinnati, Columbus, Toledo, and Detroit. It was too late, however, for such efforts to be successful. In 1932, the company was put in receivership under Conway, and a retrenchment of its operations began. Abandonment of the Eastern Michigan Toledo Railroad in 1932 ended through service to Detroit. The C&LE's Springfield-Toledo line was abandoned on November 19, 1937, and the rest of the interurban lines were discontinued by May 31, 1939. the company's bus subsidiary took over passenger service along the same routes. Rail service from Dayton to Southern Hills (3 miles), mainly on Dayton city streets, was not replaced by buses until September 28, 1941.
Conway's endeavor to make a success of the C&LE was the most concentrated effort at survival of any of the Ohio interurban lines, and in most respects paralleled the experience of the Insull interests with the Indiana Railroad. (From: Hilton, George W. and John F. Due, The Electric Interurban Railways in America. Stanford University Press, 1960)
The C&LE was Cincinnati's longest-lived interurban (even counting ones taken over by the CSR), and it was also one of the busiest. Like the Cincinnati & Hamilton line, it served the densely populated valleys between Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton. Part of the reason this railroad lasted longer than the others is that it served areas of Cincinnati with no other rail transportation, and it actually made it to other major cities like Dayton, Toledo and Detroit. Most interurbans ended in piddly country towns, and required transfers to other lines to get to the nearest major city. North College Hill, Mt. Healthy and points north had no other form of rail transportation, while the other interurbans usually had competition from steam railroads, streetcars, or other interurbans. The C&LE was also quite fast, and it even won a race with a single-engine airplane in the 1930s. Of course, that was a publicity stunt orchestrated by the railroad.
The CL&E's terminal was at Crawford Avenue and Spring Grove Avenue in Cumminsville, now an uninspiring collection of industrial buildings. Due to the standard gauge tracks, the line could not operate over streetcar tracks to reach downtown. However, there was a connection with the CH&D line, but for most of the history of the interurban, the line terminated at Spring Grove Avenue, and passengers had to transfer to streetcars to reach downtown. The double track route followed Crawford along the western edge of Spring Grove Cemetery until the road bends where the C&LE then proceeded up to College Hill on its own ROW. While there are no major structures or telephone poles left that I know of, the grading is still evident as the rugged hillside up to College Hill hasn't been built on. There is a partially collapsed culvert in Laboiteaux Woods, but it is quite a hike to get there. At Hamilton Avenue and Llanfair Road, the main line turned north on a single track on Hamilton Avenue and stayed on it all the way north into Butler County, except for one short detour at Burlington Road (Hamilton Avenue later bypassed this section). There's nothing to see that I know of along this part of the line through Hamilton County. There was also an important transfer station on the northwest corner of Hamilton Avenue and North Bend Road, where interurban passengers could transfer to the College Hill streetcar line under a protected shelter. The single track freight line, which was the old route of the College Hill Railroad, ran on Llanfair until Belmont Avenue, where it followed its own ROW north to Simpson Avenue. There are plenty of telephone poles and grading along this stretch, especially noticeable where the railroad passed under Glenview Avenue. The line Crossed North Bend Road at Davey Avenue, and some telephone poles can still be seen to the south. Between Davey Avenue and Simpson there is a North and South Railroad Avenue which the C&LE ran between. This is an interesting diagonal slice across this gridded neighborhood. The freight line followed the side of Simpson Avenue north to Arlington Memorial Cemetery where it had its own ROW to the terminal and a small yard at Compton Road in Mt. Healthy. The old carbarn at the terminal is now used by Sunderhaus Auto Body, with the original high bay doors still evident on the north side of the building.
Hartwell - Hamilton
1901-1926
Broad Gauge
Constructed by the Cincinnati & Hamilton Traction Co., 1901
Leased to the Cincinnati Interurban Co., 1902
Reorganized as the Ohio Traction Co., 1905
Purchased by CSR, Service Cut Back to Springdale, 1926
Streetcar Service Suspended, 1932
The lesser of the two interurbans connecting Cincinnati and Hamilton was this 5'-2 1/2" line through Wyoming and Glendale. It was built by predecessor companies between 1897 and 1901, and brought together by merger as the Cincinnati and Hamilton Traction Company in 1902. This road had great difficulty securing a franchise in Hamilton in 1901, but did so after threatening to run motor vehicles from the city limits to the business district as train connections. In 1902 the property was leased to the Cincinnati Interurban Company, which in 1905 became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Ohio Traction Company, a Schoeph-McGowan corporation that controlled the street railway in Cincinnati. It operated as the Mill Creek Valley Line of the Ohio Traction Company until 1926, when it became part of the Cincinnati Street Railway itself. The Street Railway cut the line back to Glendale in 1926, and discontinued it in 1932. (From: Hilton, George W. and John F. Due, The Electric Interurban Railways in America. Stanford University Press, 1960)
This is the second interurban to connect Cincinnati with Hamilton, although over a much different route. The line was pretty heavily traveled, due to the dense industrial and residential development in the river valleys between Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton. As already mentioned, the city of Hamilton caused some problems for this line, but Springdale depended on, and actively supported the interurban. This was most apparent after the CSR took over the line and ended interurban operations on July 15, 1926. Streetcar service was introduced on the line to Glendale, ending at a loop at the corner of Sharon Road and Springfield Pike. The citizens of Springdale wanted to keep transit service, and they funded the construction of a loop in front of the city municipal building (a short distance north of Kemper Road). The loop was put in service on April 12, 1928, and service was restored to downtown Cincinnati from Springdale. All operations north of Wyoming were abandoned in June 1930 however, and by August 11, 1931, a loop was built at Springfield Pike and Bonham Road in Wyoming. All streetcar service on the line was abandoned on November 9, 1932, due to repaving of Springfield Pike south to DeCamp Avenue in Hartwell. There's some more information about this line in a site detailing the history of Glendale, as well as in another page on the history of Springdale.
The route basically stayed on streets in Hamilton County, although there was a small private ROW in Hartwell at Woodbine and DeCamp. Because of the broad gauge tracks, and the fact that the Schoeph-McGowan syndicate owned the line, it was able to operate to downtown on the streetcar tracks. The double track route north of Hartwell followed Springfield Pike to Glendale, where it continued north along Princeton Pike, then became single track and turned west on Sharon Road to re-join Springfield Pike. One USGS topographic map, and the PUCO map, show the line bypassing Glendale, following Springfield Pike the whole way without entering Glendale along Princeton Pike and Sharon Road. I've been told that this was never the case, and unless I hear information to the contrary, I will assume the maps were in error (it has happened, especially with the PUCO maps, which were probably drawn from the old USGS maps anyway).
Kennedy Heights - Lebanon
1903-1922
Broad Gauge
Constructed by the Interurban Railway & Terminal Co., 1903
Abandoned, 1922
Three 5'-2 1/2" lines out of Cincinnati comprised this company. The first was built along the Ohio River to New Richmond (19 miles) in 1902 by the Cincinnati and Eastern Electric Railway. The second, the Suburban Traction Company, opened a line to Bethel (32 miles) in June 1903, and the third, the Rapid Railway, finished a line northeast to Lebanon (33 miles) in October of the same year. The three companies were consolidated in 1902. This company was also badly damaged by the flood of 1913, and in 1914 went into a receivership from which it was never removed. The Bethel line was particularly weak, since most of it was within sight of the Cincinnati Georgetown and Portsmouth, a somewhat stronger company. The IR&T Bethel line had the advantage of entry into the downtown area over the Cincinnati Street Railway, but this was not enough to save it, and it was abandoned in 1918. The remaining lines to Lebanon and New Richmond were abandoned in 1923. (From: Hilton, George W. and John F. Due, The Electric Interurban Railways in America. Stanford University Press, 1960)
Like the other IR&T lines, this one had a relatively short and uneventful life. It ran on Montgomery Avenue, continuing past the end of the streetcar route, originally at Fenwick Avenue in Norwood, but later from Coleridge Avenue in Kennedy Heights. This, and the other IR&T lines traveled over streetcar lines to reach downtown. Past Pleasant Ridge, the IR&T became single track, and it paralleled the CL&N north through Deer Park along the west side of Blue Ash Road. Most of the route in this area is now used as parking along the street, but large power lines remain. The old carbarn is still standing at 7234 Blue Ash Road, now occupied by Steward Industries. The line then ran along Kenwood and hooked back up with the CL&N on its own ROW to Butler County. There was a short branch line to Montgomery, exactly paralleling a branch line for the CL&N. This line is well represented by power lines, and the route is quite apparent through Mason and Kings Mills. Daniel Bingamon's house in Kings Mills is the old station, and the ROW is probably pretty evident going down into the Little Miami Valley behind there, but I have not explored it myself. There's not much to see between there and Lebanon, however there are still tracks buried under the streets of Lebanon. Cracks were telegraphing through the pavement on Mulberry Street as of 2006. This is the only instance of actual interurban tracks remaining anywhere in the Cincinnati area that I know of.
Norwood - Hillsboro
1906-1920
Standard Gauge
Constructed by the Cincinnati & Columbus Traction Co., 1906
Abandoned, 1920
This was a standard-gauge interurban, 53 miles long, between Norwood, at the edge of Cincinnati, and Hillsboro. It was chartered in 1901 and opened on April 22, 1906. It was promoted locally and early in its history was known as "The Swing Line," after its principal promoter. The company's ambition to build east to Chillicothe or Columbus were never realized. It paralleled no railroad, although the Baltimore & Ohio had a branch into Hillsboro. The company was never profitable enough to pay a dividend. The property was so badly damaged in the flood of 1913 (which injured all the lines in the area) that the company applied for voluntary receivership, from which it never emerged. In common with most interurbans, it had a very bad year in 1918, when it lost $21,036. The receiver concluded the property was hopeless and in 1919 applied for abandonment. Permission was granted, but an unsuccessful effort on the part of local residents to refinance the road and to continue it in service delayed sale for scrap until 1920. Its power business outlasted the rail operation, but was also sold to local interests in 1920. Its cars, heavy Jewett combines, were sold to the THI&E, the Joplin and Pittsburgh, and the Northeast Oklahoma, which was about to electrify. (From: Hilton, George W. and John F. Due, The Electric Interurban Railways in America. Stanford University Press, 1960)
As already mentioned, this interurban never made it any farther than Hillsboro. Not long after it opened, its owners renamed it to try to boost ridership. Of course, it didn't work, and this was Cincinnati's shortest-lived interurban. It didn't help that this line never made it any closer to Cincinnati than the center of Norwood. The C&C also got very little suburban traffic, since it traveled through areas that are sparsely populated even today. This interurban fought with the CM&B over the bridge crossing the Little Miami River in Milford. The C&C couldn't get a franchise, and had to build its own bridge to the south. The destruction and replacement of this bridge in the 1913 flood (among other flood damage) sent the C&C into receivership, from which it never emerged. There was pressure from the citizens of Madisonville to keep the line, because it was a convenient way to get to the factories in Norwood from their neighborhood. Since most of the streetcar lines ran radially from downtown, taking the CSR would involve going to Walnut Hills and back out. That trip would take some 45 minutes, instead of 10 on the C&C. Unfortunately, the CSR had no interest in that, and passionate citizens along the line could not raise enough money to save it.
The route's terminal was at the end of streetcar route 5 in Norwood on Harris Avenue. Since this was a standard gauge line, passengers had to transfer to streetcars here, or take a steam train to downtown via either the B&O or the CL&N. With the proposed subway running directly behind the old station location, this area would have been one of the busiest intermodal transfer points in the area, with the streetcar line, C&C, subway, and two railroad lines all intersecting nearly on top of each other. Harris Avenue is now right at the edge of the Norwood Lateral highway, which cuts across Harris a little farther to the east, and with the subway never being finished, the CL&N dismantled south of the B&O, and no C&C or streetcars left, the area is a bit of an empty wasteland now. Several blocks to the east, the single track line went along Harris and quickly struck out on its own ROW upon reaching Poplar Street. The crossing of the C&C marked the east end of Norwood Avenue until after it was abandoned, and the road currently narrows noticeably just east of Poplar. The houses on the north side of the street are basically on top of the old roadbed. The road descended into the Duck Creek Valley, at the present location of the I-71/Norwood Lateral interchange, just east of the Pennsy's connecting track and Norwood station that was built after the C&C was torn up. All traces of the C&C and Duck Creek Road were obliterated by construction of I-71, and the creek itself has been channelized through much of this area. It is very hard to find anything left of the C&C around here because of this. Past Ridge Road the route ran some 20-30 feet north of Duck Creek Road to just west of today's Oaklawn Drive, a newer road built in the 1960s, where it turned southeast towards Madison Road. Since all the development along Duck Creek, Oaklawn, and the subdivisions around Collinwood Place and Eastwood Drive happened after the C&C was abandoned, the only remaining trace is about 100' of graded ROW in a ravine behind the end of Collinwood. The route then followed Madison Road to Whetsel Street, north to Chandler Street, and finally to a private ROW west of, and higher up the hill than the B&O outside the city limits. The route then followed the B&O to downtown Madeira, where a station remains on Miami Road. It then crossed Camargo Road and climbed up to Indian Hill. The road went through what would later become cookie-cutter suburban development to the site of the current village hall. The line ran to the south behind the elementary school then descended into a valley, called Redbird Hollow, and followed this almost all the way to Given Road. The ROW through Redbird Hollow is very beautiful, and it's a popular walking trail with several bridge structures to see. The best way to get there is to park on the east side, where there's a small parking "lot" on the side of Given Road. It takes about 40 minutes to walk the entire length of the trail, which almost reaches Shawnee Run Road, but disappears before reaching the school play fields. East of Redbird Hollow, the C&C ran right along the southern border of Indian Hill where there are some bridge abutments visible from Given Road. It then went into Terrace Park and then briefly across Wooster Pike. It then crossed another small creek (the same one as in Redbird Hollow, actually) just past the PRR and then crossed the Little Miami River into Milford. There are several piers for this bridge remaining, although they are not accessible from any roads. The line then ran on High Street in Milford, just one block from the CM&B on Main Street. There's an alley behind some of the houses along Main Street that marks the route, but after that the commercial development of the area has obliterated any remains until well past I-275. Out in the country though, there are several areas where the route is easily viewed.
Madisonville - Blanchester
1903-1926
Broad Gauge
Constructed by the Cincinnati, Milford & Loveland Traction, Co., 1903
Reorganized as Cincinnati, Milford & Blanchester Traction Co., 1906
Service Over CSR Lines to Downtown Suspended, 1915
Abandoned between Newtonsville and Blanchester, 1922
Purchased by CSR, Service Cut Back to Milford, 1926
Service Cut Back to Mariemont, 1936
Streetcar Service Suspended, 1942
A predecessor company, the Cincinnati Milford and Loveland Traction Company opened a 5'-2 1/2" line from Madisonville, on the outskirts of Cincinnati, to Milford (17 miles) in 1903. The road built an additional 12 miles to Blanchester in 1906. The company never operated to Loveland, and never carried out its plans to built to Columbus. Cars were equipped with a double trolley for running on the 8 miles of the Cincinnati Street Railway between Madisonville and a downtown terminal at 5th and Sycamore. The company found its trackage rights too expensive and after 1915 no longer came into the center of the city.
The road was put in receivership in 1917 and in the following year was reorganized as the Cincinnati Milford and Blanchester Traction Company. The Kroger family, which controlled the company, abandoned the segment from Newtonsville to Blanchester in 1922, and sold the rest to interests connected with the Cincinnati Georgetown and Portsmouth Railroad in 1926. The company was hopelessly uneconomic, and was abandoned in the same year, save for the Madisonville-Milford line, which was incorporated into the Cincinnati Street Railway. The CM&B's lightweight cars, very similar to the last cars of the Cincinnati Lawrenceburg and Aurora, were sold to the Street Railway. The surviving Milford line was cut back to Mariemont in 1936 and abandoned entirely in 1942. (From: Hilton, George W. and John F. Due, The Electric Interurban Railways in America. Stanford University Press, 1960)
The CM&B, later known as just the Milford Line, was the only interurban taken over by the CSR that lasted for very long. Like the C&C, this was one of the more scenic routes, as Fairfax is the most "urban" place along the line. Much of the rest of the route went through picturesque Mariemont and along the wooded bottom of Indian Hill. It also benefited from little street running, having its own ROW through much of Hamilton County. As mentioned before, this interurban fought with the C&C over the bridge crossing the Little Miami River in Milford. The CM&B got the franchise, but fights with Milford were constant. Most of the complaints from Milford came from failure to comply with the franchise agreements, such as: painting poles, providing clean, well heated cars, maintaining the bridge, and keeping roads repaired around the tracks. Destruction of the bridge in the 1913 flood was not as damaging to the CM&B as the destruction of the C&C's bridge, since it was partly owned by the city and the state. Nevertheless, the line failed in 1926, and the CSR took over operations to the intersection of routes 50 and 28 in Milford. The line east of Miami Road in Mariemont was abandoned in 1936, and the rest abandoned in 1942.
The CM&B has the most visible remains of any of Cincinnati's interurbans, partly because it operated longer than most, but also because the ROW is either sandwiched in by existing development/roads or the terrain is too rugged to bother with. Nothing remains of the terminal at the side of Erie Avenue, however. Construction of the overpasses at the PRR Richmond Division and Red Bank Road in 1942 required demolishing much of the terminal building and is what caused the final abandonment of the line. From here to the east side of Mariemont, the single track ROW is very obvious. (Note that the route was originally double track from Cincinnati to just before Terrace Park). In Fairfax, it ran just north of Murray Road with double telephone poles along the way. In Mariemont it ran down the median of Murray Avenue. Utility poles are also quite evident here too. There was a loop at Miami Road for route 72 to turn back to Cincinnati, and the grading and even part of the platform are still there. Recently, some of the loop was landscaped and a new plaque was installed to commemorate the history of the loop. Just past Mariemont, a little north of Wooster Pike, there are lots of concrete bridge supports where the railroad came down the hill. From Plainville on, the route gets much harder to find. It flirted with Wooster Pike at various places, but widening of the road has since obliterated any evidence of the side of the road ROW. In fact, widening of Wooster Pike is another item that precipitated the abandonment of the CM&B, since the State wanted the space the rails took to widen the road. In general, the opening of Columbia Parkway and improvements of Wooster Pike served not only to kill the CM&B, but many of the east side streetcar lines and even Peeble's Corner in Walnut Hills, which depended on transferring streetcar traffic for its commercial dominance. In Terrace Park the CM&B took a detour along Elm Avenue, it actually passed under the Pennsylvania Railroad west of Elm with a small viaduct that has since been filled in. The power lines still cross the bike trail in that location today. It then wound its way up to Terrace Park, ran along the east side of the PRR and eventually made it back to Wooster Pike near the Pennsylvania Railroad Viaduct. There was once a picturesque trestle near the PRR viaduct, but virtually nothing of it remains. There are some telephone poles left around here, but it's so overgrown there's not much else to see. There are some remains of a bridge for the C&C here as well. Due to street running, there isn't much to see in Milford either, aside from the powerhouse on the west side of the Little Miami River. Beyond Milford there is still quite a bit of ROW to see, and one can follow it all the way to Blanchester without too much difficulty.
Columbia - Bethel
1903-1918
Broad Gauge
Constructed by the Interurban Railway & Terminal Co., 1903
Abandoned, 1918
Three 5'-2 1/2" lines out of Cincinnati comprised this company. The first was built along the Ohio River to New Richmond (19 miles) in 1902 by the Cincinnati and Eastern Electric Railway. The second, the Suburban Traction Company, opened a line to Bethel (32 miles) in June 1903, and the third, the Rapid Railway, finished a line northeast to Lebanon (33 miles) in October of the same year. The three companies were consolidated in 1902. This company was also badly damaged by the flood of 1913, and in 1914 went into a receivership from which it was never removed. The Bethel line was particularly weak, since most of it was within sight of the Cincinnati Georgetown and Portsmouth, a somewhat stronger company. The IR&T Bethel line had the advantage of entry into the downtown area over the Cincinnati Street Railway, but this was not enough to save it, and it was abandoned in 1918. The remaining lines to Lebanon and New Richmond were abandoned in 1923. (From: Hilton, George W. and John F. Due, The Electric Interurban Railways in America. Stanford University Press, 1960)
This was probably the worst planned route for any of Cincinnati's interurbans. The IR&T line to Bethel was in direct competition with the C&GP that had been around for 30 years already (not that competition was uncommon in the industry). Considering how normal it is to take Beechmont Avenue from Columbia Parkway to get up to Mt. Washington today, the IR&T route through California seems rather circuitous. Regardless, the IR&T and the CG&P fought with one another on several occasions, but despite their competitive nature, they did cooperate on certain occasions, especially during floods or other disasters. One of the most contentious points, however, was the Donham Avenue Viaduct in Columbia. This single track viaduct was built to connect the IR&T and the CG&P (after they stopped running cars on the PRR line to downtown) with the East End streetcar line. Because the two roads used this single track viaduct, going in both directions, it was frequently the site of delays. There are also reports of cars from one company blocking cars from the other company, and taking their passengers (usually the ones going to Coney Island amusement park). When the PRR line was elevated, both the CG&P and this line made the connection with the streetcars a little further to the northwest at Stanley Avenue, and the viaduct was removed. While the IR&T connected with the East End streetcar line here, the CG&P built a loop and a stucco station/office building just south of the PRR viaduct, in the park opposite Stacon Street. Competition from the CG&P, as well as the rather sparse population along the line, made for a rather short life. There had been talks of the CG&P taking over portions of the route, but it never happened.
The IR&T basically followed Kellogg Avenue on a double track route from Columbia to Coney Island. The single track lines to Bethel and New Richmond branched off at Sutton Road and the entrance to Coney Island. The Bethel line then went up the hill along Sutton, merging with and diverging from it many times along the way. From Columbia to Mt. Washington, there isn't much to see aside from a little grading along Sutton. Upon reaching Beechmont Avenue, there was a stub that went north for a few blocks to serve the Mt. Washington business district (this stub is shown on all maps, but it never extended north/west any farther, despite what the PUCO map shows). From this point on the IR&T followed Beechmont Avenue into Clermont County, and all the way to Bethel. Due to the relatively recent suburbanization of Anderson Township, and the prolific street running of the railway, there's nothing much left in Hamilton County. Though there are many utility poles all along Beechmont Avenue/Ohio Pike, they're not really a good indicator of the IR&T's location since the road has been so significantly widened.
Columbia - New Richmond
1902-1922
Broad Gauge
Constructed by the Interurban Railway & Terminal Co., 1902
Abandoned, 1922
Three 5'-2 1/2" lines out of Cincinnati comprised this company. The first was built along the Ohio River to New Richmond (19 miles) in 1902 by the Cincinnati and Eastern Electric Railway. The second, the Suburban Traction Company, opened a line to Bethel (32 miles) in June 1903, and the third, the Rapid Railway, finished a line northeast to Lebanon (33 miles) in October of the same year. The three companies were consolidated in 1902. This company was also badly damaged by the flood of 1913, and in 1914 went into a receivership from which it was never removed. The Bethel line was particularly weak, since most of it was within sight of the Cincinnati Georgetown and Portsmouth, a somewhat stronger company. The IR&T Bethel line had the advantage of entry into the downtown area over the Cincinnati Street Railway, but this was not enough to save it, and it was abandoned in 1918. The remaining lines to Lebanon and New Richmond were abandoned in 1923. (From: Hilton, George W. and John F. Due, The Electric Interurban Railways in America. Stanford University Press, 1960)
Not to be confused with the Cincinnati & Eastern Railroad, predecessor to the Norfolk & Western's Peavine route, this IR&T line is not quite as ludicrous as the one through Mt. Washington, but it still competed with the CG&P that had a short branch to Coney Island. After this single track line branched off from the Suburban Traction route to Bethel at Coney island, it flirted with Route 52 on its way to New Richmond. It diverged from the road in many places, and ran on the road farther to the east, bearing to the north/east onto what is now Old Kellogg near Clermont County. Since the ROW was sandwiched between the river and the hillside, there were very few riders between California and New Richmond. However, the interesting terrain would have made for a beautiful ride. Because of that rough terrain, landslides, floods, and construction of Route 52, there is really nothing left of this line that I know of.
Columbia - Russellville, branches to Batavia and Felicity
1886-1936
Narrow Gauge, Steam, 1873
Converted to Standard Gauge & Electrified, 1902
Constructed by the Cincinnati & Portsmouth Railroad, 1886
Reorganized as the Cincinnati, Georgetown & Portsmouth Railroad, 1902
Reorganized as the Cincinnati-Georgetown Railroad Co., 1927
California branch abandoned east of the water works, 1927
Felicity & Bethel branch abandoned, 1933
Batavia branch abandoned, and outer line between Georgetown and Russellville, 1934
Passenger service suspended, and all service abandoned east of Bethel, 1935
All service abandoned, 1936
This company completed a 3-foot-gauge steam railroad between Cincinnati and Georgetown (41 miles) in 1886, and in 1902 both converted it to standard gauge and electrified it. A branch from Lake Allyn to Batavia was opened at the same time. The company also operated a 5'-2 1/2" line to Coney Island that entered Cincinnati over the street railway. The standard-gauge line was extended from Georgetown to Russellville (8 miles) in 1904. An affiliate, the Felicity and Bethel Railroad (9 miles) was opened in 1906. The CG&P hoped to build east to Portsmouth, but although it did some grading between Russellville and West Union, it lacked the funds for completion. The road always retained much of the character of a shortline railroad, in spite of its electric operation. It interchanged railroad freight, operated a railway post office, and even interchanged a passenger car with a steam short-line, the Ohio River and Columbus Railway to serve Ripley, Ohio. the Felicity and Bethel used a steam locomotive for freight service.
[Note there are many small mistakes in the following dates, refer to the years in the list above] The company failed in 1927 and was reorganized in 1928 as the Cincinnati Georgetown Railroad Company. The new corporation abandoned the Georgetown-Russellville extension in 1933, and in 1935 abandoned the outer 20 miles of the remaining main line, as well as the Batavia branch. It gave up passenger service at the same time. In 1936, it abandoned the rest of the property. (From: Hilton, George W. and John F. Due, The Electric Interurban Railways in America. Stanford University Press, 1960)
Along with the C&LE, this was one of the area's most useful interurbans. The Railroad With 3 Gauges (the name of David McNeil's book on this railroad) operated at one point narrow, standard and broad gauge rails all at once in the Carrell Street yard. The reason for the gauge differences is because the CG&P started life as a narrow gauge steam railroad. It was similar to the Cincinnati & Westwood, and the College Hill Railroad, with aspirations for expansion not unlike the nearby Norfolk & Western or the Cincinnati, Lebanon & Northern, both of which also began life as narrow gauge railroads. However, even after electrification and conversion to standard gauge, the CG&P maintained its status as a railroad, just an electrified one, which gave it some advantages with the Public Utilities Commission. Nevertheless, the CG&P considered itself an interurban when it was deemed convenient, and although it had its own private ROW for pretty much its entire length, the sharp turns, heavy grades, and frequent stations made it much more like other interurbans than a mainline steam railroad. The line was converted to standard gauge at the same time as electrification, and a broad gauge route was constructed to the California Water Works and Coney Island. Electrification was intended to breathe new life into the line, which only made it as far as Russellville, still a significant distance from Portsmouth. The line was very important for the city of Georgetown, which was its major supporter, while other communities such as Batavia were rather ambivalent towards it. Due to the sparse population of the area, the road (like most interurbans) never saw stellar revenues, but it held its own into the 1920s. The end came rather quickly, however, as passenger and freight traffic quickly dropped off in the late 20s and 30s. There were talks of the CSR taking over the route to Mt. Washington and/or California, since the residents of those neighborhoods wanted more frequent service (both the CG&P and the IR&T ran cars only about every 2 hours) and the 5¢ city fare. The CSR determined that there was not enough population in either neighborhood, and the line would operate at a loss, even if it was obtained for free. The city of Cincinnati did purchase the western end of the CG&P however, though only for freight service to the California water works. They abandoned the electric power and bought a gasoline engine for use on the line. Even this proved too expensive, and the last run was in 1943. The spur off the PRR tracks at Carrel Street remains to this day however, and the loading platform was still in use by the water works (and possibly the adjacent Metropolitan Sewer District treatment plant) into the late 20th century.
The CG&P ran from Columbia, near the old PRR station, along the Little Miami Valley to California. There are still some tracks splitting off the PRR line at Carrell Street leading to a the aforementioned loading platform. While this does mark the route, it's doubtful that they're actual interurban-era tracks. Right next to Lunken Airport there is a low flood wall that used to be the a low wooden CG&P trestle that was eventually filled with earth. The route ran straight from Airport Road to the Little Miami River, a more recent expansion of the airport's property at the far southern tip necessitated relocating a new flood wall. A stone bridge pier off the running trail near the river marks where it used to cross. In the winter, one can see the ROW climbing up and winding around the hill at the edge of California Woods Preserve. About half way up the hill to Mt. Washington, a branch line to Coney Island splits off from the main line at California Junction. There's some interesting stuff left here under the old junction, just east of a sharp bend in Kellogg Avenue. Some foundation piers are still there for the trestle, and there is an odd road loop on the south/eastbound side of the street. It kind of looks like a bus or streetcar loop. This was actually the eastbound lanes of Kellogg Ave. There was a fat steel support column for the railroad trestle above that split the lanes of the road around it. Apparently they only recently fixed it and abandoned the old outer lanes, leaving this "loop" that's now barricaded off. The trestle was built by the city of Cincinnati and leased to the CG&P. The branch was originally intended as a freight spur to supply the water works, but it was later extended to Coney Island. There's not much to see of the branch line in California except grading. The main line continued the climb up the hill. There's a road called Moon Valley Lane that leads to the ROW. This road "ends" with a driveway to the front and to the left. The driveway to the left is the ROW, and if you look to the right the ROW follows a little cut in the hill and bends to the south. There's nothing to see along Salem Road which was bridged by a wooden trestle, but north of here the ROW is a bit more evident. The old Mt. Washington station is on Sutton Road, it's an American Legion Hall now. Behind there is an electrical substation and a parking lot and a fence line that follows the rail bed. The line then curved southeast and wiggled around a bit before shooting east-northeast towards Clermont County. Because of suburban development, there's nothing much left to see except some houses that are older than the rest. There was a short branch line to Batavia, and another between Bethel and Felicity. Jeff Wood has provided several pictures of the line through Clermont County and points east.
L&F-Lebanon & Franklin
Lebanon - Franklin
1904-1919
Standard Gauge
Constructed by the Lebanon & Franklin Traction Company in 1904
Abandoned, 1919
This interurban was opened on May 28, 1904, between the towns of its name, which were 11 miles apart. It connected at Lebanon with the broad-gauge Interurban Railway and Terminal Company and at Franklin with the Ohio Electric's Cincinnati-Dayton line, from which it purchased power. It carried passengers in a coach and combine. Short interurbans that served no important center of population were the weakest in the industry, and thus it is not surprising that this company was among the first to be abandoned. On December 11, 1918, the Ohio Public Utilities Commission granted it permission to abandon, effective January 1, 1919. (From: Hilton, George W. and John F. Due, The Electric Interurban Railways in America. Stanford University Press, 1960)
Due to this line's short life, and route across relatively flat terrain, there is very little left of it to see anymore. The main artifacts are a stone bridge abutment along state route 123, and some telephone poles in Red Lion. Street widening near Lebanon and Franklin has obliterated any other traces of the line near its terminal cities.
Baltimore & Ohio/Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton - CSX, Cincinnati Terminal Subdivision
Former Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton/Baltimore & Ohio to Lima
Standard gauge line opened to Dayton in 1851
Downtown terminal: Baymiller Street Station (5th & Baymiller Streets)
Mostly abandoned south of Ivorydale (St. Bernard), in active use north of Ivorydale
Chartered on March 2, 1846, the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton was the second railroad constructed in Cincinnati, and the first to follow the mostly flat Mill Creek Valley north out of the city. It opened between Cincinnati and Hamilton in 1846, but did not reach Dayton until the late summer of 1851. The line ran from its downtown terminal location at 5th and Baymiller Streets a short distance due west to the base of Price Hill before turning north and following the west side of the Mill Creek Valley into Butler County. The first downtown station building opened on 5th Street west of Baymiller in 1851. Growing traffic necessitated construction of a new station at the corner of 5th and Baymiller, opening in 1863 at which point the old station was relegated to serving freight. The railroad's terminal facilities would remain at this location until Union Terminal was opened, and some non-passenger facilities remained until 1963. At that time, with the construction of I-75, the 6th Street Expressway, and the clearing of Queensgate for "urban renewal", Linn Street was rerouted over that section of Baymiller and it was significantly widened, thus destroying any remains of the CH&D terminal. The neighborhood is now a somewhat desolate industrial area, with some older factories and newer warehouses. Even in the railroad's heyday, when that was a much more bustling mixed-use neighborhood, it was still a discouragingly long way from the heart of downtown. Most people had to take a horsecar, streetcar, or carriage from Baymiller Street to downtown, making the trip somewhat difficult for commuters and visitors alike.
Industrialization of the Mill Creek Valley and new commuter traffic from railroad suburbs like Cumminsville, Winton Place, Carthage, Hartwell, and Glendale caused rapid increases in local traffic through the remainder of the 19th century. Outside the immediate area, the success of the CH&D was predicated on making connections with other lines in Hamilton and Dayton. In 1865, a third rail was laid along the whole main line between Cincinnati and Dayton at a 6'-0" gauge to provide trackage rights for the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad. That company planned to connect the New York & Erie Railroad at Salamanca, New York with the Mississippi River at East St. Louis via Dayton, Cincinnati, and along the Ohio River with trackage rights over the Ohio & Mississippi, which utilized the 6'-0" gauge exclusively. Unfortunately, the explosive growth of Chicago and the construction of shorter trunk lines across the flat terrain of northern and central Ohio and Indiana killed this plan. The expense and difficulty of maintaining and operating the dual-gauge tracks, as well as acquisition of many connecting lines and expensive operating rights over other connecting roads put the CH&D in a precarious financial condition which caused its eventual bankruptcy and reorganization.
The B&O purchased and subsequently merged with the CH&D in 1917, preserving it as a going concern. Due to its location on the west side of the Mill Creek Valley, no significant modifications to the routing of passenger trains was necessary for service to Union Terminal when it was constructed .Passing through several manufacturing centers, it remains one of the busiest lines into the Cincinnati area, providing access to Toledo, Detroit, and points east and west upon arrival at Sidney and Deshler, Ohio. Today, the line is in two sections; the southern quarter is part of Cincinnati Terminal, with the northern 3/4 (north of Hamilton) called the Toledo Subdivision of the Louisville Division. Since consolidation of the north-south lines through the Mill Creek Valley onto the B&O line in 1970, the portion of the CH&D south of Ivorydale in St. Bernard (just east of Mitchell Avenue) has been cut off from through traffic. The line has been completely abandoned and dismantled from Ivorydale south through Winton Place, Spring Grove Cemetery, and Northside/Cumminsville. The tracks reappear near Millcreek Road in South Cumminsville, but it has been closed north of the Western Hills Viaduct since December 2003. The remainder of the line to Queensgate is used to serve a few online industries as the CSX Industrial Track.
Baltimore & Ohio to Columbus - Indiana & Ohio, Midland Subdivision
Former Marietta & Cincinnati/Cincinnati Washington & Baltimore/Baltimore & Ohio to Columbus
Standard gauge line opened in stages from 1855 to 1864
Downtown terminal: Central Union Depot (3rd Street & Central Avenue)
In active use
The Marietta & Cincinnati was the third railroad built in Cincinnati, chartered in 1845 but not placed under construction until 1851. Significant financial assistance from the completely isolated rural towns and counties along its route helped the road finish its initial construction from Marietta to Loveland in 1857. At that time, the road reached downtown via trackage rights from Loveland to the Little Miami Railroad's downtown terminal, but at a discouragingly high rental cost to the fledgling railroad. Reorganization in 1860 made the funds available to continue construction into the city, when the line through Indian Hill, Madeira, and Norwood was completed. Money ran out upon reaching St. Bernard, but in 1861 a connection was built to the CH&D at what would later become Ivorydale Junction, allowing the Marietta to use the CH&D's Baymiller Street Station over much shorter trackage rights than they had over the Little Miami. When the Indianapolis, Cincinnati, & Lafayette opened their new Plum Street Station in December of 1865, the Marietta arranged to use their station, but still operated over the CH&D to reach downtown until they finally completed their own line down the Mill Creek Valley in 1872. In the same year, they got their own tenant, the CCC & St. L (Big Four/NYC) to Columbus, who used the newly opened extension to from Ivorydale to reach the Plum Street Station. Financial troubles from the outset, a reliance on connecting traffic, and few online customers in the Cincinnati area (as Norwood and St. Bernard were only just starting to industrialize) gave the new road little hope for the future. Acquisition by the B&O in 1882 to create a through route to Columbus via other purchased lines saved the road from a premature death.
Suburban traffic increased from the growth of Norwood, Madeira, and Loveland, but this paled in comparison to the local passenger traffic generated by the CH&D and Big Four lines up the Mill Creek Valley. Increasing industrialization in Norwood also provided a good amount of freight traffic, especially after the turn of the 20th century to the now-gone GM plant. The B&O also served the large Cincinnati Machine Tools (later Milacron) facility and other factories in Oakley and Madisonville. Beyond Madisonville there was little local passenger traffic aside from commuters to Madeira and Loveland, and beyond that the countryside is pretty sparsely populated even today, so the connection between Cincinnati and Columbus is the only reason for the line to remain in existence. While many factories in Norwood, Oakley, and Madisonville have closed, the double-track line through Norwood proper is relatively busy. From Oakley east, the line is single-track but with fairly consistent traffic. The section of road from St. Bernard south has been heavily modified over time, with the addition of massive classification yards, approaches to Union Terminal, proximity to flood control work on the Mill Creek, I-75, and consolidation of all north-south railroad traffic from St. Bernard south. As part of that consolidation in 1970, the route south of Ivorydale Junction was grade-separated to eliminate road crossings at Mitchell and Clifton Avenues, and in 1995 a third track was added to handle additional traffic, as the former Marietta, Big Four, and CH&D lines all funnel through this one location. Due to congestion in this area, there are talks of possibly adding a fourth main track, which would be especially necessary for any future passenger rail plans in Mill Creek Valley. CSX owns the line now, but starting on October 15, 2004 it is leased to Indiana & Ohio east of Ivorydale. Norfolk Southern has trackage rights south of Ivorydale Junction as well, as NS is the successor to the aforementioned Big Four/NYC line to Columbus.
Baltimore & Ohio to Washington, IN - CSX, Louisville Division, Indiana Subdivision
Former Ohio & Mississippi/Baltimore & Ohio to Washington, IN
Broad gauge (6'-0") line opened in 1857, converted to standard gauge in 1871
Downtown terminal: Front & Mill Streets (Now Mehring Way & Gest Street), then Central Union Depot (3rd Street & Central Avenue)
In use except downtown terminal areas
The last of the so-called pioneer railroads to be built in Cincinnati, the Ohio & Mississippi received its charters from Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois in 1848, 1849, and 1851 respectively. Construction began in 1851 and it was opened between Cincinnati and Aurora, Indiana in 1854. The line to East St. Louis was completed in 1857, aided by a large loan from the city of Cincinnati and the usual stock subscriptions. Built to a 6'-0" gauge to provide a connecting route for the Atlantic and Great Western, this highly overcapitalized company was financially sick from the outset. By locating the line along the bank of the Ohio River, construction was relatively easy until Aurora, where it climbs to the higher interior plains of Indiana. The earliest terminal was a modest wooden structure on the south side of Front and Mill Streets, currently the 3-way intersection of Mehring Way, Pete Rose Way, and Gest Street. A somewhat larger and better executed wood station was built on the same site in 1873, but it still typified the precarious situation of the road. Conversion to standard gauge in 1871 helped bring the line into a somewhat better position, but rescue didn't come until the turn of the 20th century when it was absorbed into the Baltimore and Ohio. A connecting viaduct to Union Terminal was constructed, which climbed up the north bank of the Ohio River, passed under the north approach to the Cincinnati Southern Bridge, then swung north to Union Terminal. The viaduct itself has been dismantled, but the arched concrete piers remain. Today this route sees a trio of weekday manifests that operate west from Cincinnati to Seymour, then south on the Louisville & Indiana Railroad to Louisville, Kentucky. Local trains are based at Trautman, Ohio and Mitchell, Indiana.
Chesapeake & Ohio to Russell, KY - CSX, Cincinnati Terminal Subdivision
Former Chesapeake & Ohio to Russell, KY
Standard gauge line opened to Cincinnati in 1889
Downtown terminal: 4th Street Station (4th Street between Smith and John)
In active use
The Chesapeake & Ohio Railway mainline to Cincinnati was completed in 1889 after their bridge over the Ohio River was finished. Running along the Ohio River for almost the entire route to Russell, the line sees a substantial mix of manifest, steel and coal traffic, averaging 12 to 16 trains per day. It is also the route of Amtrak's train into Cincinnati, the "Cardinal". The line begins south of Union Terminal and proceeds along the C&O Viaduct to the C&O/Clay Wade Bailey Bridge and Covington. At 16th Street in Covington (KC Junction), the line veers east while the former L&N to Corbin, KY proceeds south. The line travels east through Newport, Bellevue, and Dayton, then parallels the Ohio River to points east.
Though the north end of the C&O bridge was almost directly over top of Central Union Depot, getting the trains down to the level of that terminal and turned in the proper direction ended up being a nearly insurmountable problem. The result was the conversion of an old house on 4th Street (which is at approximately the same height as the bridge) into a passenger station, with small freight handling facilities to the side. Most freight traffic was handled farther west in the tangle of yards in the Mill Creek Valley, which the C&O reached by the area's only steel railroad viaduct. When the bridge over the Ohio River was replaced in 1928, the viaduct was reconstructed and new sections were built to connect with Union Terminal. Most of this viaduct remains today, and it has much the same character as the elevated rapid transit lines in Chicago and New York, especially along Mehring Way west of Freeman Avenue. The old station location on 4th street was obliterated by the I-75/Ft. Washington Way interchange.
Chesapeake & Ohio of Indiana - Indiana Eastern Railroad
Former Chesapeake & Ohio of Indiana to Cottage Grove, IN
Standard gauge line opened in stages between 1902 and 1910
Downtown terminal: 8th & McLean, then Baymiller Street Station (5th & Baymiller Streets), then 4th Street Station (4th Street between Smith and John)
Dismantled south of Fernald in 1979, in limited use north of Fernald
The construction of this railroad rounded out the Cincinnati terminal system upon its completion in 1904. The Cincinnati, Richmond and Muncie Railroad was incorporated in 1900 to build a new line to Chicago on the shortest route between the two cities. Two other companies were formed to carry out the construction, and upon reaching Griffith, Indiana in June 1904, the three companies were merged to form the Chicago, Cincinnati, and Louisville Railroad. Plans to reach Louisville via the north bank of the Ohio River and Madison Indiana were never realized due to a lack of traffic and capital. A small combined freight and passenger station was built at 8th and McLean, at the east end of the 8th Street Viaduct. While the road did achieve its goal of the shortest route to Chicago, they were not able to draw much traffic away from several already established competitors. The route through South Fairmount, Westwood, Bridgetown, Dent, and Fernald required navigating torturous terrain. The rugged hillside along South Fairmount necessitated building 9 wooden trestles, more than any other local railroad in such a short length. These were eventually replaced with steel trestles, but the 1.9% grade through here made freight handling a problem. The long climb out of the Mill Creek Valley was all for naught, as the railroad then had to descend into and climb out of the Great Miami River Valley as well. These factors made the helpless railroad an easy target for others looking to expand their empire. The CH&D acquired control shortly after the line opened in July 1904. Failed expectations led to receivership in 1908 and it was sold at foreclosure to the C&O in 1910. From then on it operated as a subsidiary, the C&O of Indiana.
The small combined station at 8th and McLean served a rather short life as a passenger station. When taken over by the CH&D, passengers were transferred to Baymiller Street, and eventually to the C&O's 4th Street Station in 1910. The difficulty of operating over the rugged western hills, and declining freight tonnage in general led to the abandonment of the line south of Fernald by the Chessie System (successors to the C&O) in 1979. Reconstruction of the massive Queensgate Yards was another impetus for abandonment, as the long steel trestle to South Fairmount was in the way of track expansion. CSX eventually succeeded the Chessie System, and the current operator, the Indiana Eastern Railroad, commenced operation of the remainder of the line on August 27, 2005 when it leased it from CSX. With cleanup of the Fernald property completed, the fate of the road in Hamilton County is uncertain.
Louisville & Nashville to Corbin, KY - CSX, Huntington West Division, CC Subdivision
Former Kentucky Central/Louisville & Nashville to Corbin, KY
Standard gauge line opened in the late 1850's
Downtown terminal: Central Union Depot (3rd Street & Central Avenue) or 4th Street Station (4th Street between Smith and John)
In active use
The first railroad constructed south from Cincinnati was the Covington & Lexington Railroad, chartered in 1849. By 1853 only 20 miles had been constructed from the center of Covington south along the Licking River, due to the difficulty in raising capital from the sparsely populated Kentucky countryside. The road reached Paris, Kentucky in 1856, and in 1859 they merged with the Maysville & Lexington to form the Kentucky Central Railroad. Even with a through route to Lexington established, the small company had no resources to span the Ohio River, and had to wait until the C&O built its bridge in 1888. An important coal hauling route, this was to become the Louisville & Nashville's main line to Corbin, Kentucky, and it still carries significant traffic today.
Louisville & Nashville LCL Subdivision - CSX, Louisville Division, LCL Subdivision
Former Louisville, Cincinnati & Lexington/Louisville & Nashville LCL Subdivision (Short Line)
Standard gauge line opened in 1869
Downtown terminal: Pan Handle Station (Pearl & Butler Streets)
In use
While its parent railroad, the Lexington & Ohio, was chartered in 1831, the earliest west of the Allegheny Mountains, it wasn't until 1869 that the Louisville, Cincinnati & Lexington began running trains to Newport Kentucky. In 1868, even before normal operations began to Newport, they incorporated the Newport and Cincinnati Bridge Company to construct a combined rail and road bridge over the Ohio River, expected to be complete in 1870. The location was chosen to align with the LC&L's track on Saratoga Street in Newport and to connect with the Little Miami's terminal area along Butler Street in Cincinnati. The close proximity to the tracks on the Ohio side, and their perpendicular alignment to the bridge, required a sharp 90º turn and a steep approach. This arrangement, paired with the Little Miami's tight yard configuration, required LC&L trains to pull past the station then back in, an awkward operation that lasted until passenger operations were moved to Union Terminal. The bridge was slated to open on time, yet railroad opponents (chiefly riverboat operators) aided by the Corps of Engineers required a partial rebuilding of the brand new bridge to raise the deck and widen the clearance between the center spans. This delayed opening until 1872, and after the LC&L was acquired by the L&N Railroad in 1881, increasing traffic required replacing the bridge in 1896, which remains to this day as the Purple People Bridge.
Louisville & Nashville, Wilder Main - CSX, Louisville Division, LCL Subdivision
Formerly part of the Louisville & Nashville LCL Subdivision (Short Line)
Standard gauge line opened in 1869
Downtown terminal: Pan Handle Station (Pearl & Butler Streets)
Dismantled north of former C&O line in Newport, KY
This is the rail line that connected the Purple People Bridge with KC Junction in Covington via Saratoga Street in Newport. It was dismantled north of the C&O along Saratoga in 1984.
New York Central/Big Four, CIND Subdivision - Indiana & Ohio, CIND Subdivision
Former Indianapolis & Cincinnati/CCC & St. L (Big Four)/New York Central to Indiana
Standard gauge line opened to Cincinnati in 1863
Downtown terminal: Central Union Depot (3rd Street & Central Avenue)
In use except downtown terminal areas
The Miami & Erie Canal is fairly well known in Cincinnati due to its central location and eventual use for the never completed subway. However, few people know of the second canal to serve the city, the Cincinnati & Whitewater Canal, which ran west from downtown along the Ohio River. Beyond North Bend, it turned up the Whitewater River Valley to connect at Harrison with a system of other canals in southeast Indiana. While the Miami & Erie Canal remained somewhat useful through the end of the 19th century, the Cincinnati & Whitewater Canal was bankrupt and abandoned by the time the Indianapolis & Cincinnati Railroad was chartered in 1861. In a remarkably far-sighted move, the I&C purchased the canal property in order to construct its new line. This move gave them a nearly level entrance into the heart of the city (the original terminal was at Plum and Pearl Streets, directly under today's Ft. Washington Way). On top of that, the entire route was grade-depressed enough below street level for road bridges to clear railroad cars, thus eliminating nearly all at-grade street crossings. The final advantage was the acquisition of the canal's tunnel under the small ridge at Cleves, thought this was bypassed to the west by deep cut for the railroad and US-50 in the 1880's. The north end of the tunnel remains today, with the north portal still accessible and visible from Miami Avenue, although it has been filled with sediment to within about 3 feet of the top of the arch. The one disadvantage to this arrangement is that the railroad was somewhat more susceptible to flooding by the Ohio River, being 10-15 feet lower than surrounding grade and considering that the canal bed was not originally intended to drain. Nonetheless, it made for a very clever reuse of the abandoned canal bed.
The Plum Street Station was opened in December 1865 on the site of the Pearl Street Market, which had never been used for its intended purpose. The terminal basin for the canal was along the south side of Pearl Street, ending at Central Avenue, with the market property stretching two blocks farther east to Elm Street. The station occupied the very wide middle of Pearl Street between Plum and Central, in much the same way that Findlay Market today sits in the middle of Elder Street. The first freight station was constructed on Pearl between Central Avenue and John Street in 1864, and being at the location at the canal's old terminal put it in an already bustling warehouse district. This being the closest station to the heart of downtown made it a desirable terminal for other railroads to use. The Marietta & Cincinnati operated out of Plum Street as soon as the station opened, and other railroads would share this station as well, making it the city's first union station. The two-track approach would quickly become a bottleneck, and Central Union Depot was constructed a block away in 1883. At that time, the old passenger station was converted to freight use. Partially destroyed by fire in 1944, the area remained a large complex of warehouses until 1961 when much of it was demolished for Ft. Washington Way. To the west, a connecting viaduct to Union Terminal was constructed in the early 1930's, which climbed up the north bank of the Ohio River, passed under the north approach to the Cincinnati Southern Bridge, then swung north to Union Terminal. The viaduct itself has been dismantled, but the arched concrete piers remain. The tracks currently end a few blocks west of the old Central Union Depot, under the I-75 approach to the Brent Spence Bridge, at the east end of the Longworth Hall property.
New York Central/Big Four to Columbus - Norfolk Southern, Dayton District, Central Division
Former CCC & St. L (Big For)/New York Central to Columbus
Standard gauge line opened in 1872
Downtown terminal: Central Union Depot (3rd Street & Central Avenue)
Line begins at Ivorydale (St. Bernard) and heads north via Sharonville, Middletown, and Dayton
In active use
In 1872, the Cincinnati & Springfield Railroad began operating over a somewhat indirect route between its namesake cities in order to serve the industrial centers of Dayton and Middletown. It connected with the Marietta & Cincinnati's newly opened extension to downtown from St. Bernard, at what would later be called Ivorydale Junction. The road was quickly snatched up by the newly formed Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis Railroad, of which the Mad River and Lake Erie was a parent. Closely paralleling the CH&D through the Mill Creek Valley, this new company also used the Indianapolis & Cincinnati's Plum Street Station and later Central Union Depot with the Marietta. During the Penn Central years, the Big 4 east of London was downgraded and mainline trains were routed onto former Pennsylvania track, an arrangement still in use today and the track east of London has been largely abandoned. Despite reroutings and changing traffic patterns north of Cincinnati, the line through the Mill Creek Valley remains very busy.
New York Central/Big Four, Whitewater Division - Indiana & Ohio, Brookville Subdivision
Former New York Central, Whitewater Division to New Castle, IN
Standard gauge line opened in 1862
Downtown terminal: Baymiller Street Station (5th & Baymiller Streets)
In limited local use, all track restricted to 10 mph or less
The Brookville sub-division is the original property of the Indiana & Ohio. Purchased in 1978, it sees regular traffic from its primary customer in Brookville, Owens-Corning. The railroad was never a busy mainline and always had one foot in the grave being subjected to regular flooding by the Whitewater River. Today, the railroad is periodically washed out by the river in places. Once the New York Central Railroad's Whitewater Division, it runs from Valley Junction near North Bend to New Castle, Indiana. Today, all of the railroad is intact, except for a short segment between Brookville and Metamora. From Metamora to Connersville, the line is operated by the Whitewater Valley Scenic Railroad. North of Connersville to New Castle, it is operated by the Connersville & New Castle RR. I&O usually operates five days per week, depending on traffic. An engine house is located in Brookville, although operations are often based at Valley Junction. The entire Brookville sub is designated as "FRA excepted track", thus, is limited 10mph.
Norfolk & Western to Portsmouth - Norfolk Southern, Cincinnati District, Lake Division (Peavine)
Former Cincinnati & Eastern/Cincinnati, Portsmouth & Virginia/Norfolk & Western to Portsmouth
Narrow gauge (3'-0") line opened in stages between 1876 and 1882, converted to standard gauge in 1894
Downtown terminal: Court Street Station (E. Court & Reedy Streets)
In limited local use (no through traffic) east of Clare Yard, closed to all traffic west of Clare as of September 10, 2009
(The following write-up is adapted from the website Abandoned)
The Cincinnati and Eastern Railway (C&E) was a railroad from Idlewild in Norwood, near Cincinnati, to Portsmouth, Ohio. The C&E was chartered as the Cincinnati, Batavia & Williamsburg on January 11, 1876, but the name was changed and the projected route was extended to Portsmouth in May. It was projected that the line would carry coal from the Jackson County fields. Construction began almost immediately after the railroad was renamed. On October 18, 1876, the line was opened from Batavia Junction (Clare) at the Little Miami Railroad to Batavia, a distance of 15 miles. By August 4, 1877, the railroad had reached Winchester, a distance of 48 miles. On March 1, 1878, the C&E opened the first 5 miles of a branch to New Richmond from Richmond Junction to Tobasco, at the current intersection of Beechmont Avenue and I-275. In June, a 5.5-mile western extension to the Miami Valley Railroad, later the CL&N at Idlewild, was completed. The original Miami Valley Railroad promised a narrow-gauge connection through the Deer Creek Valley to their downtown Court Street terminal via the never-completed deep level Deer Creek Tunnel (Idlewild Junction is just a short distance from the north portal of the incomplete tunnel at I-71 and Blair Avenue). When the Deer Creek tunnel project ran into financial difficulties, the C&E found that its connection to Cincinnati was completely useless for four years. The railroad soon went into receivership on January 27, 1879 due to failures to collect stock subscriptions.
During receivership, little work was completed along the C&E. The branch line had been extended to Blairville, a distance of 11 miles, in 1879, and was completed to New Richmond on March 1, 1880, a distance of 14 miles. The branch had a physical connection with the Cincinnati, Georgetown and Portsmouth (CG&P) at Tobasco Junction on the border of Hamilton and Clermont Counties at Clough Pike. At a meeting on November 21, 1880 the shareholders voted to increase the capital stock from $500,000 to $2 million, and to authorize a bond issue to connect the railroad to Portsmouth and beyond to Gallipolis. In February 1882, the C&E signed a contract with the Cincinnati Northern to utilize its 3.81 miles of track from Idlewild to Court Street via the Deer Creek valley after new tunnels (unrelated to the original Deer Creek Tunnel) were completed. On April 4, 1882, the C&E began operations from Court Street, with one train running to Irvington, 62.2 miles from Cincinnati, another to Winchester, and two to New Richmond. By the end of 1882, the C&E had reached Peebles, 72 miles from Cincinnati's Court Street depot. In May 1883, the railroad had reached Rarden, and Henley in late July. On September 14, the C&E went into receivership again. Nevertheless, the C&E was completed to Portsmouth in August 1884, with a 1,000 foot truss over the Scioto River as its centerpiece.
Almost immediately after the completion to Portsmouth, the C&E began preparations for conversion of the line to standard gauge. The railroad west of Winchester, however, had deteriorated. The C&E could not also shake off receivership, and in February 1885, another receiver was appointed to the railroad. By May 1885, the C&E east of Winchester was converted to standard gauge, however, no money was appropriated for standard gauge cars. The court then authorized $180,000 to convert the western front to standard gauge, however, an accident on August 8, 1885 derailed the project. An 800-foot trestle at Nine Mile on the New Richmond Division had collapsed, killing three and injuring nine. The disaster greatly aggravated the company's financial difficulties, started talks of abandoning the branch to New Richmond, and led to another receiver being appointed. This receiver, however, felt it was necessary to reconvert the standard gauge from Winchester to Portsmouth back to narrow gauge in order for the line to generate a profit. By early 1886, the line was once again narrow gauge.
On September 1, 1886, the railroad was sold to a representative of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton (CH&D), however, it defaulted on payments and the railroad was resold on January 5, 1887 to H.B. Morehead, who formed the Ohio & Northwestern Railroad. The New Richmond Division was sold on September 1, 1886 to William P. DeVou, who organized it as the Cincinnati, New Richmond & Ohio River Railroad. He planned to extend the railroad to Aberdeen. However, by July 1889, the branch line ceased operations and was dismantled in 1898.
The Columbus & Maysville (C&M) was incorporated on April 27, 1877 and was proposed between the cities of Columbus and Maysville via Washington Court House, Hillsboro, Sardinia, Georgetown, Ripley and Aberdeen. Construction began on the 19-mile Hillsboro segment in 1878 on a narrow gauge alignment, to conform with the C&E. About 12 miles were completed from Sardinia north in 1878, and another 5.5 miles were laid in 1879 to the junction of the standard gauge Marietta & Cincinnati, about 1.5 miles west of Hillsboro. The first official run was on May 8, 1879, and the line was leased to the C&E. Local parties in 1880 formed the Hillsboro Railroad Company and constructed the Hillsboro Short Line to bring the railroad further into town, and leased it to the C&M. On May 25, 1880, the C&M resolved to convert the railroad to standard gauge and to extend the line to Aberdeen. No work was completed on either task, and the railroad was leased to the C&E. It was sold in 1885 to an eastern group. The new company reported that the railroad had been extended to Ripley, however, it in fact had not. It became insolvent and was sold on February 12, 1887 to the Ohio & Northwestern (O&NW), which had been chartered one week prior.
The O&NW moved immediately to standard gauge the main line from Cincinnati to Portsmouth, completing the task in November 1887. The O&NW also temporarily shifted its western routing to use the Little Miami as a standard gauge entry into Cincinnati, since the CL&N was still narrow gauge. The trackage rights proved prohibitively expensive, and they resumed operations to the CL&N's Court Street Station after the CL&N added dual gauge tracks between Court Street and Idlewild. The O&NW became insolvent rather quickly, however, and it went into receivership on June 15, 1888. In February 1889, under receivership, the railroad completed five miles of the long-projected Gallipolis extension from Portsmouth to Sciotoville. The O&NW was sold on March 13, 1890, which was reorganized as the Cincinnati, Portsmouth & Virginia Railroad (CP&V) on June 24, 1891. The C&M was sold separately on May 5, 1890, however, the CP&V was unwilling to resume the lease on the line, but continued to operate over it informally. Fearing abandonment, Hillsboro formed the Hillsboro Railroad, which assumed the lease and began to operate over it as a short line. The CP&V completed all standard gauge conversions in 1894.
In December 1900, the shareholders of the CP&V voted to purchase the C&M, but to allow the Hillsboro Railroad to continue to lease the line. In October 1901, the Norfolk & Western (N&W) merged with the C&M. The CP&V became the Cincinnati-Portsmouth segment of the N&W. The Hillsboro Railroad Company (former C&M) was purchased by the N&W on July 1, 1902, and it became the N&W Hillsboro branch. In 1982, the Norfolk & Western Railway consolidated with the Southern Railway to form the Norfolk Southern Corporation, and the railroad became the Norfolk Southern. Local trains serving remaining online customers are routed over the former PRR Richmond Division through Fairfax to Clare. A few short trains still served the small Idlewild yard at Montgomery Road in Norwood until all customers were shifted to Clare and the Hyde Park branch west of there was closed to traffic on September 10, 2009. The last train supposedly ran on the Hyde Park branch on August 28. Even before closing of the Hyde Park branch, most traffic headed eastbound from Clare anyway. Nicknamed the "Peavine" due to its torturous hills and curvature, the line is closed to through traffic and railbanked east of Seaman (about half way to Portsmouth). The CPL signals used along the route are still in place, but they have been turned off and covered in plastic. Round Bottom and Binning Roads closely parallel the tracks from Newtown to Stonelick. In many places, the old utility poles and scruffy nature of the right of way makes for an interesting glimpse into the past. The future of this stretch of railroad is dubious at best, but its abandonment would leave a huge area of southern Ohio without any railroad whatsoever. With the CG&P, O&NW, and most of the CL&N gone, the Peavine is the only relatively complete remainder of the former narrow gauge railroad network left in southwest Ohio.
Norfolk & Western, Cincinnati Connecting Belt Railroad
Former Cincinnati, Portsmouth & Virginia/Norfolk & Western from Idlewild (Norwood) to Ivorydale (St. Bernard)
Standard gauge line opened in 1901
Mostly abandoned except a few connecting tracks near Ivorydale
Opened in 1901, the only other belt railroad aside from the Pennsy's Waterfront Belt Line is this one that traverses Norwood from south to north. The line begins near Xavier University at Idlewild junction in Norwood at Dana Avenue, and it proceeds north from there. It crosses Hopkins Avenue, Reading Road, and Tennessee Avenue, on bridges and connects with the I&O Midland Sub (former B&O) next to the Norwood Lateral between Paddock and Reading Roads. It then crosses the Lateral just east of the I-75 interchange to the small Berry Yard, then connects with the NS Dayton District (former Big Four) and the CSX Cincinnati Terminal Sub (former CH&D) via Ivorydale Yard. Its use as a belt line was rather dubious, as there was an incomplete wye connection with the CL&N at Idlewild. Any westbound N&W or southbound CL&N trains would have to do an awkward reverse movement and have their locomotives turned around to proceed north on the belt line. Much of its usefulness was eliminated in the 1930s when connecting tracks were built in east Norwood and Fairfax allowing the CL&N, Little Miami, and N&W access to the Mill Creek Valley and Union Terminal via the B&O/Marietta line. While everything south of the B&O has been out of service for years, it is not officially abandoned and all the tracks and crossings, while seriously overgrown and not maintained, are still in place.
Pennsylvania Railroad/Norfolk & Western to Ft. Wayne, IN - Norfolk Southern, Newcastle District
Former Eaton & Hamilton/Cincinnati, Richmond & Chicago/Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton/Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis/Pennsylvania/Norfolk & Western Railroad to Ft. Wayne, IN
Standard gauge line opened in 1853 between New Miami and Richmond Indiana, and in 1888 between Hamilton and Rendcomb Junction
Downtown terminal: Pan Handle Station (Pearl & Butler Streets)
In active use
The Eaton & Hamilton Railroad (in Ohio) and Richmond and Miami Railroad (in Indiana) opened a line from New Miami, Ohio northwest to Richmond, Indiana in 1853, with trackage rights over the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad from New Miami south to Hamilton. Later that year, the Cincinnati, Logansport and Chicago Railway opened, extending northwest from Richmond to New Castle. It became the Cincinnati, Richmond & Chicago in 1858. After a brief period under the control of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton, it came under the banner of the Pennsylvania Railroads Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railroad and eventually the PRR itself. While the New Castle District of the Lake Division was originally the property of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the portion west of Mill (Evendale) was sold to N&W and conveyed on "Conrail Day" April 1, 1976. Completely rehabilitated by the wealthy N&W, it is now one of the busiest lines into Cincinnati, hosting a variety of manifest, intermodal, and grain traffic. N&W through freight operation commenced on the newly rebuilt line on September 29, 1978. Conrail retained local switching rights between Hamilton and Cincinnati, as well as to New Castle from Richmond (for a time even as far east as Eaton). Regional operator Indiana & Ohio inherited Conrail's rights between Hamilton and Cincinnati with it's 1994 purchase of the line east of CP Mill from Conrail (see the Richmond Division information below). NS dispatches the entire line in an agreement with I&O during the 1995 transaction with Conrail. The New Castle District continues west to Fort Wayne, Indiana via the former Nickel Plate Road (LE&W) out of New Castle. The Cincinnati Directional Running Project utilizes the line between Butler Street in Hamilton and Vaughn, where most trains get on the former Big Four, now the NS Dayton District.
Pennsylvania Railroad Richmond Division - Indiana & Ohio, Oasis Subdivision
Former Cincinnati & Richmond/Pennsylvania Railroad - Richmond Division from Valley (Fairfax) to Mill (Evendale)
Standard gauge line opened in 1888
Downtown terminal: Pan Handle Station (Pearl & Butler Streets)
In limited use by Norfolk Southern (via trackage rights)
Opened in 1888, the new Cincinnati & Richmond Railroad was formed to construct an extension of the earlier Eaton & Hamilton Railroad south from Hamilton through Mill (Evendale) to Rendcomb Junction on the Little Miami. Absorbed by the Pan Handle system in 1928 and eventually the Pennsylvania Railroad proper, it became the Pennsylvania Railroad's Richmond Division, along with the rest of the line to Ft. Wayne after that was sold by the CH&D. Trains from the north would use this line to access the Pan Handle Station via the Little Miami. When Union Terminal was constructed however, passenger trains were routed via the B&O/Marietta over a new connecting track in Norwood, at the present location of the I-71 and Norwood Lateral interchange. Trains from the Little Miami were also routed north on the Richmond Division from a newly constructed connection in Linwood (Redbank to Valley) to the B&O connection in Norwood. After the Penn Central merger and collapse, the line north of Mill (Evendale) was sold to Norfolk & Western instead of being absorbed into Conrail. The remainder of the line south of Mill through Rendcomb Junction was operated by Conrail. In 1995 I&O purchased the Mill-Valley section and the remainder of the Little Miami from there to downtown. NS has trackage rights to access the former N&W Peavine and Clare Yards. Since they operate the most trains, NS dispatches the line north of Valley, while I&O dispatches the former Little Miami south of there.
Pennsylvania Railroad/Cincinnati, Lebanon & Northern - Indiana & Ohio, Blue Ash and Mason Subdivisions
Former Cincinnati Northern/Cincinnati, Lebanon & Northern/Pennsylvania to Lebanon and Dayton
Narrow gauge (3'-0") line opened in 1881, converted to standard gauge in 1894
Downtown terminal: Court Street Station (E. Court & Reedy Streets)
Mostly abandoned except limited local use from Norwood to Fields Ertel, and Mason to Lebanon
(The following write-up is adapted from the website Ohio Valley Railroads)
For many years Lebanon had desired a railroad. The town, located on the Warren County highland (between the Great and Little Miami Rivers), had stagnated while railroads were built in the surrounding towns. One must remember how important railroads were to America's developing industrial economy in the decades after the Civil War, and Lebanon feared it was being left behind. Lebanon never made a strong enough case to have the Little Miami Railroad's main line run through town, and they tried unsuccessfully thereafter to get a spur built to connect with it later on. Then the town tried to support the futile Cincinnati, Lebanon, and Xenia road. After years of courting and pleading for a connection to a major line, Lebanon merchants and citizens finally decided to take matters into their own hands. The decision was made to construct a three-foot narrow gauge railroad from Cincinnati, through Lebanon, to Xenia. The Miami Valley Narrow Gauge Railway Company was incorporated on November 7, 1874 for this purpose, and the groundbreaking was on September 1, 1876.
It wasn't long before financial problems began for the new railroad, a pattern that would be often repeated for the line. Most of the right-of-way from Cincinnati through to Waynesville was purchased and the grading was underway, but raising capital to finish construction became a problem. The company went into receivership and in 1880 it was sold to the Toledo, Delphos, and Burlington Railroad (TD&B). The TD&B had big plans to expand and develop a large midwest narrow gauge system. Already the TD&B had a mainline into Dayton, and they wished to finish the line into Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Northern was incorporated in 1880 as a subsidiary of the TD&B in order to build a narrow gauge line from Cincinnati to Dodds (a small village 5 miles north of Lebanon). The railroad finally came to Lebanon on February 17, 1881. The TD&B also constructed a connecting line between Dodds and the Dayton and Southeastern Railroad line going into Dayton (at a place which came to be called Lebanon Junction). The two lines combined to form the Cincinnati Division of the TD&B. The TD&B (later merging to become the TC&StL), however, had their own problems. Over-expansion and cheap narrow gauge construction were becoming problems. Their mainline stretching from Toledo to St. Louis became a reality, but it was severally under capitalized. Maintenance on the line north of Dodds and elsewhere in the system became a nightmare, and the inherent difficulties with interchange would prove disastrous. The TC&StL eventually collapsed and went into receivership in 1883. While the TC&StL would drag the Cincinnati Northern into bankruptcy, it was actually the most well-constructed part of the narrow gauge system and made enough profit to remain competitive. Through the efforts of Albert Netter and a number of Cincinnati investors they were able to purchase the Cincinnati Division. It would reorganize as the CL&N. The line running from Dodds to Dayton was purchased by separate owners and would reform as the Dayton, Lebanon, and Cincinnati (DL&C).
The CL&N operated as a local narrow gauge suburban road for a few more years. Profits alternated between modest and non-existent. The railroad did prove its usefulness in the Ohio River flood of 1884, being the only Cincinnati railroad to remain in operation during the flood. The CL&N would come to be known as the "highland route" for its uninterrupted service during floods. In 1896 the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) purchased the CL&N in order to secure another entrance into Cincinnati in the event of another flood, as well as preventing competing railroad from purchasing the line and using it to compete with the PRR's Little Miami Division. Shortly before this purchase the CL&N was made standard gauge to appear better to potential buyers. After purchase by the PRR, the CL&N remained independent as a separate division. The Middletown and Cincinnati (M&C), an independent railroad running from Middletown to the Little Miami Division was also purchased by the PRR in 1905. The DL&C, which by this time had built it's own route into Dayton, was purchased by the PRR in 1915. These two railroad were merged into the CL&N system, creating one standard gauge railroad connecting Dayton, Lebanon, Cincinnati, and Middletown in southwestern Ohio. Thus, the fate of the CL&N would be tied to that of the Pennsylvania, the great "standard of the world".
The CL&N's independent operation ended in 1925 when the PRR consolidated it's holdings by forming the Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Detroit Railroad. However, this railroad existed mainly on paper as part of the entire Pennsylvania system. By this later date competition with the automobile severely hurt passenger traffic. The death knell for passenger service on the CL&N was the requirement for all trains to use Cincinnati's new Union Terminal, a much less convenient location for suburban commuters going downtown. The last passenger train left Lebanon on February 1st, 1934, almost 53 years to the day since the line was constructed. In the coming decades many of the stations would be torn down to reduce tax burdens. By the late 1960's, railroads everywhere were in decline. Competition from the new interstate highway system compounded by legacy tracks and regulation would nearly lead to the death of railroads in the United States. The PRR controlled over 10,000 miles of track, much of it in local light-density lines like the CL&N. To try to cut costs, 11 miles of track north of Lebanon to Lytle was abandoned in 1952. In 1968 the PRR and the New York Central (NYC), merged to form the Penn Central (PC). At that time, another 3 miles of track north of Brecon at the Hamilton/Butler/Warren County lines was abandoned, cutting the line into two sections which remain to this day. All service through the Deer Creek Valley into the Court Street Depot, as well as from Hageman Junction to the Little Miami Division, was permanently suspended. The tracks and yards at Court Street were torn up in 1970, only a few years after new bridges over I-71 had been constructed to allow the railroad to continue operating. Today, a Greyhound Bus terminal and the bulk of the Broadway Commons parking lot along Gilbert Avenue stand on the former downtown yard.
Penn Central could not stop the bleeding of cash from America's railroads. When PC went bankrupt the US government stepped in and formed the Consolidated Rail Corporation (or Conrail for short). Conrail acquired from the PC the CL&N mainline through Norwood into the new industrial parks of Blue Ash, as well as the former M&C mainline from Middletown through Hageman to Mason. It also gained control of short sections of the former DL&C near Dayton and Hempsted. It was up to Lebanon businesses to pay operating expenses for the Lebanon branch and save it from abandonment.
In early 1977, a number of Lebanon businesses banded together and saved the line from abandonment. It would be a historic decision for Lebanon's future. In 1984, the up and coming regional railroad the Indiana and Ohio (I&O) purchased the Mason subdivision from Conrail, including the Lebanon branch. Later in 1986 the I&O would purchase the Blue Ash subdivision. An attempt was even made to reconnect the former CL&N trackage, which failed due to NIMBY opposition in the nearby suburban developments. The I&O, today owned by Rail America, continues to operate the freight business through Norwood, as well as to online businesses near Mason. The center of operations is the McCullough yard in Norwood, where cars can be exchanged between the former B&O/Marietta line or the former PRR Richmond Division, both of which are operated by I&O and connect the Blue Ash subdivision to the rest of the world.
In 1985 the I&O began operating an excursion business from Lebanon to Mason. When the I&O was sold to Railtex, this was spun off as the I&O Passenger Corporation owned by Mr. Thomas McOwen. Today, the passenger operation lives on as the Lebanon, Mason and Monroe Railroad (LM&M) under the ownership of the Cincinnati Railway Company.
Pennsylvania Railroad/Little Miami Railroad - Indiana & Ohio, Oasis Subdivision
Former Little Miami/Pan Handle/Pennsylvania Railroad to Springfield
Standard gauge line opened in stages from 1841 to 1846.
Downtown terminal: Pan Handle Station (Pearl & Butler Streets)
Mostly abandoned except limited local use from Fairfax to downtown
Prior to the introduction of railroads, the only way to transport significant amounts of freight was via waterways. In Cincinnati, riverboats ruled the Ohio River, and canals linked the city and its hinterlands with points north. Canals were laid out to follow the terrain much like natural rivers. This avoided excessive grades and locks, and made transporting heavy bulk freight quicker and more cost effective. For that same reason, early railroads followed rivers closely to take advantage of their steady and shallow grades. Thus, the naming of Cincinnati's first railroad after the river it follows is no coincidence.
Chartered on March 11, 1836, the Little Miami Railroad predated the next road constructed in Cincinnati (the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton) by nearly a decade. The second railroad chartered in Ohio, its purpose was to connect with the Mad River & Lake Erie in Springfield, providing a through route from the Ohio River to Lake Erie at Sandusky. Construction began in the then unincorporated neighborhood of Pendleton, east of the Cincinnati city limits, in 1837. The primitive oak and iron strip rails reached Milford in December 1841, and regular operations to there began in that year. Construction reached Loveland in 1843, and the line to Xenia was opened to regular operations in August 1845. The remaining section to Springfield was completed in August 1846, and the connecting Mad River & Lake Erie opened in 1848. The railroad received a generous loan from the City of Cincinnati to help with construction, but a lack of funds caused many slowdowns and work stoppages during the nine years the line was being built. A proposed alternate route had the railroad diverging from the Little Miami River near Kings Mills and following Turtle Creek to Lebanon, after which point it would head northeast and reconnect with the river valley south of Waynesville. However, the rise of 33 feet per mile (a mere 0.63%) east of Lebanon was deemed too steep for the locomotives at the time. The average grade on the road following the river is a nearly flat 10 feet per mile or 0.19%. Had Lebanon shown more support for the railroad, or if it was delayed a few more years, technology would have improved such that the grade wouldn't be an impediment to operations. If the line had been built this way, it would be 5 miles shorter, cutting Morrow and Oregonia off the main route (although the Zanesville branch would likely have been built west through Morrow to connect with the main line). Lebanon would come to regret their indifference to the Little Miami, trying for 30 years thereafter to get a railroad through town (see the PRR/CL&N section for more information).
The location of the Little Miami's original terminal facilities was Pendleton, then an unincorporated neighborhood a few miles east of downtown. Prior to 1855, the eastern boundary of the city was at the intersection of present-day Eastern Avenue/Riverside Drive and Bains Street, at the usually gated east entrance to International Friendship Park. The Fulton neighborhood east of there was annexed in 1855, as it was the location of most of the area's riverboat factories. After Fulton was annexed, the eastern city limits were at present-day St. Andrews Street, and Pendleton was the neighborhood from there to the incorporated village of Columbia, whose western boundary was near Delta Avenue. The first buildings were constructed between 1843 and 1846, but they would be quickly rendered obsolete due to the Little Miami's exclusive access to the region's traffic. More shops and freight depots were constructed in Pendleton in 1848, and at the same time the line was extended west to a new terminal station on the north side of East Front Street at Kilgour, now the eastern end of the Sawyer Point parking lot. A very short unsigned stretch of Kilgour Street remains between Columbia Parkway and Pete Rose Way at the entrance to Adams Place's parking lot. Even this station quickly became inadequate, and a new passenger station was opened in 1854 on the south side of Front Street, just west of the old waterworks whose ruins are still in the park. After the last station was built at Pearl (now Pete Rose Way) and Butler Streets in 1881, the 1854 station was used as a freight depot until it burned down in 1889.
Through the rest of the 19th and much of the 20th century, the Little Miami enjoyed robust traffic, being the only mainline serving much of the east and northeast side of the Cincinnati metro area. The few other railroads that appeared nearby generally crossed at right angles, unlike the roads up the Mill Creek Valley or west along the Ohio River which had at least one if not two competitors running a parallel route. Mergers with the Columbus & Xenia through the 1860's built up a small but powerful railroad empire. On February 23, 1870, the Little Miami Railroad leased all of its assets to the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad. On August 28, 1890, the PC&St.L merged with several other railroads to emerge as the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway, also known as the Pan Handle Railroad. These companies were part of the ever-growing Pennsylvania Railroad empire, and although owned by the Pennsy, the Little Miami retained its corporate charter until the bulk of the line was abandoned in the 1970s. Traffic increases in the early 20th century prompted the grade-separation of most road crossings between downtown and Columbia/Tusculum. The railroad overpass just east of Kemper Lane was built in 1914, and the bridges over Delta and Stanley Avenues were built in 1917. When Union Terminal was constructed, passenger trains were routed north on the Richmond Division from a newly constructed connection in Linwood (Redbank to Valley) to a new B&O connection in Norwood (Oakley to Penn to E. Norwood).
Freight and passenger traffic on most railroads started to decline after the close of World War II, and the PRR/Little Miami was no exception. Because of this, passenger service to Springfield was suspended on July 21, 1953, and the line between Xenia and Yellow Springs was abandoned in 1967, eliminating difficult street running on Detroit Street in Xenia. A year later, the Pennsylvania and New York Central railroads merged to form Penn Central, in an attempt to stave off the collapse of both roads. Unfortunately, the move didn't work and Penn Central went bankrupt in 1970, unable to reconcile the changing traffic patterns with trade unions, disparate corporate cultures, and government regulatory restriction. Dissolving any remaining intercity passenger operations at this time (which spurred the government's creation of Amtrak), Penn Central continued to operate freight services under bankruptcy protection. The railroad limped along while various private-sector reorganization attempts failed, and the US Government nationalized the failed company, among several others, under the new Consolidated Rail Corporation name on April 1, 1976 (Conrail Day). The Little Miami could not be saved by the new Conrail company, as through service between Cincinnati and Xenia was suspended in 1974. In 1976, the tracks from Redbank east to Clare were sold to Norfolk & Western, and the leg of the junction between Redbank and Rendcomb was abandoned. The remainder of the main line east of Mariemont to Spring Valley was abandoned in 1976, as was the track between Yellow Springs and Beatty (just south of Springfield). At this point, all that remained east of Mariemont was a few miles of track south of Springfield to Beatty, and another stretch from Xenia to Spring Valley. Those were finally closed by 1984, and any remaining track was removed for construction of the Little Miami Scenic Trail on the abandoned roadbed.
While most of the Little Miami was lost by the arrival of Conrail Day, the mainline track south of Rendcomb Junction and the former Richmond Division north of there remained to provide a route from Mill (Evendale) to downtown. Trains took this route from the north to cross the L&N Bridge (Oasis) until it was closed to rail traffic in 1984. Trains could still traverse the downtown riverfront via the Waterfront Belt Line until it too was closed in 1986. In 1995, Indiana & Ohio acquired this stretch of track from Conrail to form the Cincinnati Terminal Railway (CTERM), whose current end of the line is at the Montgomery Inn Boathouse. Traffic is very light south of Valley Junction, with the occasional tanker brought to the few remaining customers. The Barnum & Bailey Circus train still comes to Cincinnati this way, parking along the Montgomery Inn Boathouse parking lot and International Friendship Park. North of Valley Junction, there is a bit more traffic as it's the primary access to Norfolk Southern's (formerly Norfolk & Western's) line to Portsmouth and to the intermodal Clare Yard. Because of that traffic NS dispatches the line north of Valley, even though I&O owns it.
Despite the historical value and impact the Little Miami had on shaping the railroad history of Cincinnati, very little infrastructure remains today, even along the route that has not been abandoned. Some of the Undercliff yard remains in Linwood, although it is little used like the rest of the remaining trackage (I&O's primary yard is McCullough in Norwood), and other than the tracks there's nothing else to see. The original Pendleton yards are completely gone, with no buildings or other structures remaining, save for some very old retaining walls along Eastern Avenue/Riverside Drive. There's no trace of the terminal buildings in Sawyer Point, and the only real reference to the railroad history of the site is some masonry piers for the approach to the L&N Bridge. A few extra tracks do remain along the Boathouse parking lot and Friendship Park, but the continued viability of the line south of Valley is uncertain at best. Plans for commuter rail service to the east do reuse the old ROW, but it's anyone's guess if these plans will ever come to fruition. At the very least, if the tracks do end up being removed, it's a safe bet that most of the roadbed will become more bike trail.
Pennsylvania Railroad, Waterfront Belt Line
Former belt line built to connect the Little Miami and Indianapolis & Cincinnati along the Cincinnati waterfront
Standard gauge line opened in 1864
Abandoned in 1986 and dismantled west of Broadway Street in 2000
Opened in 1864, the Cincinnati Street Connection Railway was a joint venture sponsored by the Little Miami Railroad and the Indianapolis & Cincinnati to connect the two lines. Prior to this date, the nearest connection from the Little Miami to the railroads approaching Cincinnati from the north and west was via the junction with the Marietta in Loveland. The line was constructed mainly down the middle of Front Street from the Little Miami's yards west to various connections near Freeman Avenue. The railroad remained in use until 1986, but by that time much of the route along the central riverfront had been moved closer to the river by park and stadium construction. West of Smith Street and the approach to the C&O/Clay Wade Bailey Bridge, Front Street (currently Mehring Way) is in its original location, and the tracks remained in place there until the year 2000 when it was repaved as part of the construction of Paul Brown Stadium. Parts of the abandoned ROW still exist on the riverbank between the Robeling Suspension Bridge and Great American Ballpark, but the tracks have been removed. From Broadway Street east, the tracks remain in an altered alignment but the flanges have been filled with concrete.
Pennsylvania Railroad, Zanesville Branch
Former Cincinnati & Muskingum Valley Railroad from Morrow to Zanesville
Standard gauge line opened between 1853 and 1856
Downtown terminal: Pan Handle Station (Pearl & Butler Streets)
Dismantled between Morrow and Wilmington, in use east of Wilmington
(The following write-up is adapted from the website Warren County Local History by Dallas Bogan)
R.B. Harlan, a representative from Clinton County in the Lower House of the Legislature, introduced a bill asking for a new railroad line named the Cincinnati, Wilmington and Zanesville Railroad. The charter was granted February 4, 1851. The route of the line ran from Morrow in Warren County through the counties of Clinton, Fayette, Pickaway, Fairfield, Perry and a portion of Muskingum to Zanesville. The name of Wilmington was added to the name in honor of the County in which the bill was introduced. The 1882 Clinton County history expressed that the line would be a great through trunk line. But the mistake, according to the history, was made in connecting it to the Little Miami Railroad at Morrow, and using its facilities thence to Cincinnati.
Surveys and estimates were completed from Morrow to Lancaster, a distance of 90 miles, in November 1850. The building contract was awarded to A. DeGraff, with Clinton County subscribing $200,000 for its construction. Actual work was commenced in December 1851. Actual track laying began at Morrow in the latter part of March 1853. A certain amount of delay was at first sustained due to bridge building and the terrain. In August 1853, the road was completed to Wilmington. On the 11th of that month a grand celebration was held. From 10,000 to 15,000 folks were present, including about 2,000 who arrived on the 11:15 a.m. train of 20 cars. On August 15, 1853, trains began running regularly between Cincinnati and Wilmington, one a day each way, the fare being set at $1.60 per trip.
Mr. Linton, a Representative of the Ohio Legislature from Fayette County, requested that the town of Washington Court House be included in the charter, but "this the gentleman from Wilmington refused to do."
Judge Daniel McLain was employed as representative of the people of Washington C.H., to go to Columbus and express their interest. He eventually succeeded in securing the preferred change. Judge McLain was elected one of the directors of the new railroad. He took a number of trips to the East, and by November 1852, over two thousand tons of Swedish made iron rail had reached New Orleans headed for Cincinnati.
With the terminus of the road being at Morrow, instead of Cincinnati, the earnings of the road were insufficient to meet the expense.
The road to Washington C.H. was completed November 24, 1853, and the trains started their run on that day. Regular trains began running through to Zanesville in 1856, the total accumulative mileage from Morrow being 132. Opening of this railway unveiled communications between Cincinnati and all eastern seaboards, by connecting with the original Central Ohio Railroad. Fairfield County commissioners subscribed $250,000 for the payment of which bonds were issued bearing seven percent. These bonds were sold throughout all the counties in which the line operated. The allotted funds were used for bridges, tunnels, ties and the essential part of the iron.
The original charter of the General Assembly of 1850 approved authorization of taking a certain amount of stock in the newly formed railroad, provided a majority of the people favored the measure and would so vote at a specified general election. All approved of this measure except Perry County. Two principal routes were favored in Perry County, New Lexington or Rush Creek Valley, and the Somerset Route. Each raised about $100,000 with stipulations that the road be made on a specified line. It was not until September 1852, that a decision was made at Zanesville to locate on the New Lexington or Rush Creek Valley route.
In the summer of 1854 the citizens of Perry County and New Lexington witnessed the first train from the West. For several months the train stopped at this place for the transfer of passengers and mail from railroad car to stages bound for Zanesville; the reason for this maneuver was because of the construction of a tunnel, located three miles east of New Lexington.
The railway began to have financial difficulties almost from the beginning. The company was unable to comply with the conditions of the mortgage, having taken out first, second and third mortgage bonds. The monies were expended in the construction and equipment of the road. On February 22, 1857, a court decision was made through a receiver in the case, to exercise authority to take possession of the road and property, and to "operate the road for the interest of all parties concerned." The road was operated under this decree until a plan of reorganization was perfected. The court ordered on June 10, 1863, that the mortgaged property be sold, with such sale to go toward all debts and liabilities. The sale was confirmed October 17, 1863, the buyer being Charles Moran of New York. Stipulations were made that the creditors and stockholders should be made "recognizable as a body corporate," and the railroad should be run under the charter.
A name change was made to the railway on March 10, 1864, under the new title of the Cincinnati & Zanesville Railroad Company. It was still to be operated under the original franchises of the Cincinnati, Wilmington & Zanesville Railroad. Moran deeded property to the operation held by him in trust. Erasmus Gest was selected as the new president and superintendent. The newly organized company now saw daylight at the end of the tunnel. In a period of 26 months a balance of $80,000 was placed to the credit of the road and invested in rolling stock and improvements. In due time a failure in the payment of its obligation caused its downfall. On December 1, 1869, the road with all its franchises, real estate, machine shops, depot buildings, and rolling stock was sold at auction at the door of the Cincinnati Court House, the purchaser being Thomas L. Jewett, President of the Pennsylvania Central Company. The purchase price was $1,004,000. (One source says "$1,400,000.") Jewett operated the road under his complete control until September 1, 1870, when the Cincinnati & Muskingum Valley Railway Company came into possession of it. On May 1, 1873, the road was leased by the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railroad Company under lease for 99 years.
Control by the Pan Handle and Pennsylvania Railroad proper lasted through the Penn Central merger. This and other lines were shuffeled around to various PRR and NYC parents in the 1960s but it was eventually abandoned between Morrow and Wilmington, apparently in conjunction with the remainder of the PRR/Little Miami in the mid 1970s.
Southern Railway - Norfolk Southern, Central Division, Cincinnati New Orleans & Texas Pacific 1st District
Cincinnati Southern Railway/CNO&TP
Broad gauge (5'-0") line opened to Chattanooga in 1880, converted to standard gauge in 1886
Downtown terminal: Central Union Depot (3rd Street & Central Avenue)
In active use
The NS line from Cincinnati to Danville, Kentucky has probably the most unique history of any line into the Queen City. It was chartered in 1869 through the efforts of attorney E.A. Ferguson, by the City of Cincinnati to provide a more direct connection with the South and the Port of New Orleans, bypassing the slow, upriver Mississippi and Ohio and the competing cities along that route. Named the Cincinnati Southern, it was completed at a cost in excess of $18,000,000 and began operations on February 12, 1880 after years of opposition and financial intrigue. Engineering was supervised by W. A. Gunn, who planned the route, with construction supervised by G. B. Nicholson and G. Bouscaren. The line was completed with a total of 27 tunnels totaling 4.6 miles in length and 105 bridges of various lengths. In 1881, the line was leased to the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific Railway. Originally built to 5 foot gauge, it was converted to standard gauge on May 30, 1886 in a single day. The CNO&TP entered receivership in 1893 and through a series of acquisitions and other actions, the CNO&TP (still leasing the CS) came under the control of the newly formed Southern Railway. The CNO&TP was associated with the Queen & Crescent Route in honor of its terminal cites nicknames (Cincinnati is the Queen City, New Orleans is the Crescent City). Although it was never completed to its intended destination, it did reach the major southern rail hub of Chattanooga, where it connected with other Q&C roads. In the early 1960's the Southern Railway rebuilt much of the 2nd District, which greatly modernized and revitalized the line, making it a major rail artery in the Midwest.